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TI: Well, so we should maybe just talk a little bit, so you initially were at Heart Mountain, went to Tule Lake. So why don't you describe why your family or how your family got from Heart Mountain to Tule Lake?

JY: I never asked my dad why he wanted to go Tule Lake. Because I signed "yes-yes" to leave the camp, I wanted to go to school, and I was accepted to Miami University in Ohio. And I was ready to go, and Dad says, "No," he says, "You can't go." And that was a big discussion, and my brother wrote to me, he says, "Well, why don't you go with the family, keep the family together?" I said, "Okay, so what do you suggest?" And that's why I went to Tule Lake, 'cause I was able to work outside of the camp because I was "yes-yes," and do whatever I have to do. But the rest of the family was stuck in camp. And my father took off and went to, wanted to go to Tule Lake, and that's how we went to Tule Lake.

TI: And so what did you have to do... I mean, so administratively-wise, did you just tell them that you wanted to keep the family together and that's why you were sent to Tule Lake? Or how did you work that out? Because otherwise, if you were a "yes-yes," they would probably have just left you there.

JY: Yes. I was of the age I could have broke away. But then again, I just told 'em, "I'm going to go to Tule Lake," that was it. I didn't have no money. Everything you give, it's the old system, you give to your parents, right? Sixteen dollars I made, I took a couple dollars for myself, and the rest, my father got the money. And then I don't know what he did with it, disbursed among the kids. But the first winter in Heart Mountain, it was cold. First time we were dressed like we are now and going to someplace thirty below zero, it's no picnic. And he was saying that one time, he spent over two thousand dollars buying clothing for us. There was eleven of us he had to clothe, right? So at the time, sure, things were cheap, but still only had one set of winter clothes and that's all. Everything was not wool, either. It was the best he could do to fit us up, yeah.

SF: Why did your dad want to go to Tule?

JY: Huh?

SF: Why did your dad want to go to Tule Lake?

JY: I never asked him. I never found out. I didn't have the nerve to ask him. So I just asked my mom one time, and she said she didn't really know why he wanted to go.

SF: So he just said, "We're gonna," he wanted to go?

JY: Yeah. We had the property in Berryessa and everything else, we had a place to go back to, but he still, I don't know why he really wanted to go to Tule Lake. Whether it may have been draftable age, my brother was draftable age, and my brother below me was draftable age. The three of us were draftable age, too. Whether that was it, I don't know. He never said to evade the draft or whatever it was.

SF: Did he talk about going back to Japan?

JY: Never... well, see, that was the biggest problem. Like in any, all the camp, was the same. We really never sat down as a family and talked to each other. At home, yes, we sat down and ate the breakfast together, lunch together, dinner together. But in camp, we'd eat our own, whatever we wanted to eat, go to our friends' or whatever it is. Or like me, I'll go to work early, I'll eat in the first shift, sometimes I'd eat with the workers, then come home. A lot of times I'd eat with the workers, too, because I get home late. So there's no chance for me to discuss any issue with the parents or my brother and sister.

SF: There were eleven sibs, right, all together?

JY: Yeah.

SF: So how did, how did the other eleven, other ten... it's a lot of younger kids, but how did the kids who were old enough to answer the "loyalty questionnaire," how did they, your brothers and sisters, answer that?

JY: Well, I think there was a lot of influence through the parents. My father had lot of influence, 'cause I know my sister stayed behind. She was married in Tule Lake, and then my oldest brother was in Tule Lake, the second one was in the army, the third one was my sister, then I came fourth, and my sister below me, she was not of age yet at the time, so she didn't sign. But, so I don't know. At the time, I think the parents really had a strong hold of us, that, "You should do this, you should do that," type of deal. I think that's what it was. 'Cause I don't think they knew I signed the way I did sign.

TI: But their influence was, "Keep the family together, let's all go to Tule Lake together."

JY: Yeah. The Issei parents, "I'm the boss, I'm the matriarch of the whole family, I'm gonna still tell you what to do, what not to do."

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.