<Begin Segment 6>

MN: So by this time, this is the late 1930s, were you getting a sense of the militarism building up in Japan?

TH: Yeah, I think you could feel it, yeah.

MN: How could you feel it? Did you see more soldiers, were they on your campus? Were the Kempeitai around? How did you feel it?

TH: Well, because there was news about the conflict between China and so forth. But, well, I was too young to really understand what was going on.

MN: So how did you know that there was militarism, that militarism was being built up?

TH: Well, looking back, you could see it, but at that time, it's the usual thing. You have like Japanese army shoukou, what you call that shoukou, officer conducting some sort of training. And, of course, you're wearing, what you call? Around your leg.

MN: And they were around a lot? You saw them around?

TH: Yeah, they were part of the instructors at high school.

MN: They were instructors at your high school? Is that what you said?

TH: Well, part of the... yeah. They were always there.

MN: Did they have a room in your high school?

TH: You mean like a classroom? Oh, yeah.

MN: So they used rooms in the school, the soldiers did.

TH: No, I didn't, I didn't really see them that often, but a certain period, I would see him.

MN: Now, at that time, if you were drafted into the Japanese army, would you have gone?

TH: Of course. You have to. Otherwise you would be thrown into jail.

MN: But yourself, what did you think about yourself? Did you think you were Japanese or did you still think you were American?

TH: Neither, actually. Mostly Japanese American. I didn't really belong in Japan. So, no, I never thought of myself as a pure Japanese.

MN: So you never, did you always feel like you didn't fit in in Japan?

TH: Well, I didn't really belong there like a native Japanese.

MN: So you always thought you would come back to the United States?

TH: Pardon?

MN: Did you always think you would come back to the United States?

TH: No, I never thought about it.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.