<Begin Segment 9>

TI: But prior to that, the information I have is that these men who were talking with the JACL, some of them got beat up. So they were beat up and the claim was that Ueno was part of the gang that beat up these...

PT: That's right.

TI: Okay.

PT: And then he was sent to prison and they brought him down. I mean, Ueno had every right to beat him up because the JACL was way, way out there. Anyway, Ueno was brought back, they realized he has to be brought back.

TI: And this was demanded by people in camp. They protested, they said he was taken away unfairly, so they brought him back.

PT: Yes. And then there's a whole bunch of people there. And sadly, the people from up your way...

TI: Bainbridge Island?

PT: Bainbridge Island, they were the first ones to be removed, and they were the first ones to be sent to Manzanar. And their housing was right about there, near the jail. And I forgot his name, but he goes out to see what's going on, and then the soldiers started shooting, and he got shot in the back. And I'm working as a hospital orderly, and I stay up with him that night. I go out on midnight, no nurse, nothing, nobody comes to see him. And he says, "I don't want to die. I don't want to die." And the night goes on. I don't know if you ever feel that. Eight hours, just there watching this guy die. I've never seen anybody die before. And I know a little bit about medicine, and I said, "This guy needs oxygen and he needs hydration," and they don't have any.

TI: So he had a gunshot wound into the abdominal area, and had they removed the bullet?

PT: Yes.

TI: But the medical facilities, as you mentioned earlier, were not first rate.

PT: So he lasted at least two or three days. If he had oxygen and so forth, he would have lived. He died, and I've never seen anything like this, and I quit. I was out of it. Then I went home, I was with a bunch of single guys, and then I went home to where the family was. There was a lot of extra housing by that time.

TI: Go back to when he was in the hospital. You mentioned no one came to visit him?

PT: Nobody came in.

TI: So no family members?

PT: No, no, he had family, but they were worn out. They were there all day, and I was on the midnight shift.

TI: I see. So at night no one was there because during the day the family was there.

PT: And I heard some of my high school friends got shot, too. So I went to see them and they said they were okay. It hurts, but they were okay. So I resigned.

TI: Before then, though, while you're sitting with the people who are wounded, what are you thinking?

PT: Me? What was going in my mind?

TI: Yes, what's going on in your mind?

PT: Despair. "What else can they do to us?" But I did feel there's something we can do sooner or later, but I did not know what it was. And some nice person donated books to the camp, and I've always been a reader. So there was a big book like this, and I've never heard of this book before, it's called A Tale of Two Cities. So I read that, and then I read other books, and I would read all night long. My father said, "Paul, why don't you go to sleep? You're going to ruin your eyes." I said, "Yeah, yeah."

TI: But going back to the hospital, so at night sometimes would you read?

PT: No, because I quit.

TI: You quit, though.

PT: I quit.

TI: But going back to that time when this young man was there, what else could you do? Was there anything else you could do for him?

PT: No.

TI: It was just waiting with him.

PT: I didn't talk to anybody.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.