<Begin Segment 22>

TI: So tell me about school in Des Moines, Iowa. So you started your senior year in high school there. How did people treat you at the high school?

TU: Well, they took me right in. I forget the name of some of these fellows, but they knew I played basketball, so they invited me to play basketball with them. And during the gym time, there was this guy named John Mackie that was kind of a guy that palled around with me. There were other kids that kind of came up to me, but we got along fine. And they had this basketball team outside the high school, I got invited to play with them. And Mrs. Allen also arranged for me to go to the Methodist church in Des Moines. She called up the pastor, head minister, and told him that I'll be going there and, "Help him out," kind of thing.

TI: Now, how did that come about? Did she know that you were Methodist? Did she ask you?

TU: Well, we talked. The Allens, they wanted to know just how it was, they wanted to know about the evacuation and all that. They were interested in me personally, yeah. And so the question about religion came up, and I'm a Methodist, I belong to Methodist church, and they were Episcopalians. So instead of taking me to the Episcopal church with them, they arranged for me to attend a Methodist church in Iowa. And the Methodist church there had youth fellowship high school kids, I got invited to be with them, to participate in their program. And they want to know my story. They took an interest in me so I told 'em about camp and they were all receptive. Not too many questions, but they still listened to my story.

TI: Now, were any of them surprised that you had a brother in the U.S. Army? Did that ever come up, and were people saying, "Oh, that's interesting"?

TU: Nothing that pointed toward that. Nothing focused on that. But I think I told the Allens. Now, the Allens had a son in the Army Air Corps, the Air Corps was under the Army at the time. He was flying one of these bombers over Italy from North Africa. And then they had a son-in-law, he was a navy lieutenant, one of the "ninety-day wonders."

TI: Yeah, OCS?

TU: Well, these guys were pick of the crop from college, they're supposed to have brains, and they made officers in ninety days. [Laughs] And so two of their family in the service. And, of course, Mrs. Allen wrote letters to them saying that they brought in a Japanese boy and how they felt about it. And they wrote back and said, "Oh, he's welcome. He's American. We have no objections." So the son-in-law, we kept up with him for years and years. And he finally came out to Alameda, and we went to see him in Alameda. And then a few years later, I think he got into physical problems. And I said, "I'd like to come out and see you, Phil," and he said, "No, I'm not in a position to see anybody." But anyway, I think for some reason, he was hallucinating or whatever it was. He was legally blind, by the way, and the way it came about was he was on watch during the daytime in the Atlantic Ocean, watching out for the German subs. And the glare of the sun on the ocean, they think, damaged his eyes. So he used to get allowance for that. But anyway, the point is, they had no bad feelings towards me and I didn't have bad feelings towards them. So for years and years we kept up with Mrs. Allen, we went out to see them in Iowa, and then Phil came, and the Allens died, and Phil and the Allens' daughter came out to Alameda. We kept up correspondence for a while until she passed away. So of the Allens, I don't know if there's anybody remaining now.

TI: But it sounds like your time in Des Moines, Iowa, was good. Between the Allen family, school, the Methodist church, that it was a good experience even though you were all by yourself, high school student.

TU: Yeah. So I didn't have, I didn't need to lean on anybody. And I was a pretty healthy kid, I didn't get sick. I remember catching a cold, but I didn't have to call up anybody and say, "Hey, I really need company," or whatever it was.

TI: Did you stay in touch with your family during this time, like letter writing or your brother or people like that?

TU: I remember writing letter to my mother, but the other kids, no.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.