<Begin Segment 24>

TI: And about how long were you in the stockade?

MY: I think about three, four weeks. I think, I don't remember. It may have been longer. I tend to think it was longer, but I don't remember.

TI: But it just felt like about three to four weeks that you were there?

MY: In retrospect, I can't see it being any shorter, but I could feel it was longer.

TI: 'Cause what's interesting, when you look at the records, the records indicate that you were there for five months.

MY: No, that's plain BS. I was not there for that long.

TI: So the records were wrong.

MY: I would say record is wrong. No way was I there that long, because if I were that long I would've gone through three hunger strikes. I went through only the first hunger strike, and the second hunger strike took place after I left, and then the third hunger strike took place way after I left. That would've been toward the end of stockade, which would've been about four or five weeks. Correct? I don't know the period sequence, 'cause stockade did not last that long and all those hunger strikes did not take place too much longer after I left.

TI: And so why were you released? So after that time, what, what...

MY: Any better reason than I was placed in there, no reason. Nobody knew why were there. Nobody knew why were being released.

BT: Now, what was going on with your mother at the time that you, your brother, and your father were in the stockade?

MY: Well, I remember my mother coming to the end of the prison area, Tule Lake, and where we were and waving. And then they put a plywood so we couldn't see each other. Last time I remember my mother was that situation. Beyond that, I don't know what my mother was doing, other than teaching flower arrangement and teaching, doing her embroidery and sewing clothes for us as an activity.

BT: You don't think that she and your father were writing letters?

MY: No, I don't know, because I don't remember how long my father was in stockade. I don't think he, I think he was released before me.

TI: Okay, so let's, so now you're back in the more general population, and so do you get back into your routine of three days?

MY: Back into the same routine. I retain my position in the fire department.

TI: But after going through that experience in stockade, how were you changed?

MY: None.

TI: So that's, you went through it, even though you had that period of even blacking out and not remembering and hunger strike, it was like life back to normal?

MY: Part of prison life.

TI: So again, when you think of your professional kind of view of this, when you, when you hear this, I mean, it would seem to me, as an outsider, thinking you just went through a very traumatic experience, and now you're back into a routine and not...

MY: Well, the routine in itself is traumatic. It was not a normal life, let's put it that way. It wasn't that traumatic. So the stockade experience itself, other than incidences of blacking out, the issue of the hunger strike really was no big deal. One becomes hungry and I could tell you it's no big deal to go through seven days of hunger strike.

TI: But having, maybe, a soldier with a machine gun pointed at you --

MY: That in itself was pretty damn cold standing out there. There was a soldier behind me and there was the truck there with a gun pointed at us, machine gun, so... [Laughs]

TI: [Laughs] So to many people that would be a very --

MY: That kind of situation becomes a pattern of life, at that time. In retrospect, my god, it's a major traumatic experience. To me it was not traumatic, even in retrospect. Now, one goes through seven days without food? It's no big deal. One gets a little hungry, that's about it, and that's my reaction to hunger strike or people not eating. They shouldn't go too far because they're gonna damage their body, is my reaction. When people go hunger, hunger strike in terms of publicity: publicity.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.