<Begin Segment 11>

PT: I think I was in a state of shock, and the only way I could deal with that was just to read, most of the time all night long. And during the daytime, in the next house was a guy I went to high school with, Kibei guy. And he was from Florin, I think, and the way I got to him is in high school, in the hallway we had...

TI: Oh, lockers?

PT: Lockers, yes. And he had the lowest one on the bottom, and I had about three up, and I could just figure it out. Then at the very top was a white guy who played football. And this guy who had the lowest one, he had been to Japan. Very quiet guy. And I think sometimes when the Nisei got sent back to Japan, I think he needed some discipline or something like that, so maybe that's why they sent him. Because he was a very quiet guy. And one day this football player pushed his knee on the back of this Kibei guy, and I'm looking around, and then there's a crowd. He's still working over there -- no, he's not there. Then I looked around, and this big football player's just on his ass. He landed somewhere, and he was in pain, and this guy's right back there working on his... and I felt sorry for the football player. [Laughs] And it was a lesson to me that, "Don't mess around with these Kibei guys."

TI: So it sounds like it was judo or something that he went in and just flipped the guy.

PT: Yes. And then we land up in Manzanar together, and his job is to watch the food.

TI: So just like a night guard?

PT: Night watcher for the food. And then he says, "Why don't you come and I'll show you where I work." We went there at midnight, and then he promptly gets a piece of meat and slices it and cooks the piece for him and a piece for me. And I ate it with considerable guilt. Then he asks me once again, "You want to come with me?" and I said, "No thanks." I think he had a right to do it, because he's going to work all night, he's got to stay up at night. But taking meat like that, it bothered me. But it was shortly after that that the papers for military...

TI: So the "loyalty questionnaire"?

PT: Yes, that came along. And there were some very funny kind of stuff that happened on that. I knew a bunch of guys, a group of people from Los Angeles, and I signed "yes-yes." I really felt it. And then some of the other guys did, too. One guy runs back to me and says, "Paul, you've got to help me." I said, "What happened?" He says, "Well, I put 'yes-yes.' My father's going to be disappointed in me, and I want to change it." [Laughs] So I changed it for him. Talked to them and said that he wants to change it.

TI: Oh, so you helped him change from "yes-yes" to "no-no"?

PT: Yes. They're still there. And I said something to the effect that he's the only son in the family, and unless it's absolutely necessary, it's more important to be at home. They bought it.

TI: But what's interesting, when you look at those questions, it doesn't really talk about being with your family or anything, it's about loyalty to the United States. But what you're saying is that your friend changed his answer to be with his family, to stay with his family and not be separated.

PT: Yes. But he said, "Okay."

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.