<Begin Segment 14>

SY: So when you... we didn't cover whether you -- you hadn't graduated from high school when you got the order to evacuate?

FO: Yeah.

SY: How many years did you have left?

FO: I was a senior.

SY: So just a few months you had left.

FO: Yeah.

SY: And did that bother you?

FO: No, but the thing is, when we got to Jerome, they set up a school system. Every camp set up their own school system. And for teachers we had guys that were engineers who worked in the aircraft industry. And we had people who were college students, and we had people who were chemists. So they all were hired, and then I found out later that the surrounding area, all the hakujin teachers wanted to come into teach at the camp because they paid better. So all the good teachers were accepted and they came into camp to teach. And the people that were outside, I understand they were really upset. And then we had sugar and stuff like that. On the outside they were all rationed. So there was real hard feelings there.

SY: So, but as far as you were concerned, you didn't have to finish school.

FO: No, I finished school.

SY: So once you got into camp, you...

FO: Yeah, I finished one year, my senior, I was a senior, so I went to school for a short time and I was in the first graduating class.

SY: Oh, so you graduated in...

FO: In camp.

SY: In Jerome. I see. And when you graduated, then were you given the opportunity to leave?

FO: Yeah. You know, we had nothing to do. But at that time, we had the famous questionnaire, 27 and 28. "Are you gonna be loyal to the U.S.?" "Would you forsake any allegiance to the emperor?" Well, that broke up the family. I don't know how much you people know, but that broke up the family. The people, the parents who didn't have citizenship except in Japan, they wanted to go back to Japan, because the U.S. couldn't guarantee their citizenship. The Kibeis, the guys that were born here and went back to Japan to study and came back, they know the good Japan. And the guys like us, we didn't know what Japan was. So that split the family.

In fact, I'll tell you a story. This one family that we know, the brothers had it out in the bathroom, they were that determined. The parents and the older son wanted to go back to Japan. The younger son was my friend, and he didn't want to go. So he says, "Frank, would you come live with me? My folks are gonna go to Tule Lake." So I said, "Yeah, okay." So I was trying to get my few clothings together. And just then my mother walked in. She says, "What are you doing?" I said, "I'm gonna go live with Tee." His name was Tee Saisho. "I'm going to go live with Tee." She says, "No, you're not." I said, "Why not?" "Have Tee come live with us." So my mother and dad kind of adopted Tee. And it was a good thing because later on, when we were all outside, and Tee was in Seabrook, New Jersey. The folks went to Seabrook, and Tee kind of looked after them while we were in the army, my brothers and I. So he was God sent in a way.

SY: That's really a nice story. And what happened to his parents? Did they end up in Tule Lake and then...

FO: Yeah, they ended up, I don't know whether they went to Japan or not, but...

SY: But he managed to stay.

FO: He managed to stay, and he was in Seabrook. And later on, he got married in Seabrook. My mother and father was the baishakunin, the go-between, and supported him. And after the war, I don't know where his parents went -- but they came back to the United States. And the parents came and thanked my folks for taking care of Tee. So we were close at that time.

SY: So in your family, was there a problem? Were your parents kind of thinking...

FO: No.

SY: There was never any...

FO: Never. We never discussed it.

SY: Everybody wanted to stay in the United States?

FO: Everybody wanted to stay.

SY: Even all your brothers, sisters, because they all were born here.

FO: See, because my dad said, "Japan's gonna lose the war. They can't fight this industrial nation. They're nothing. So they're gonna lose the war, mark my words."

SY: But your mother had... well, both of them had family.

FO: Both of them had families, but Mom says, no. She was raised here... she was like an older Nisei because she was that age.

SY: That's right, she was younger when she came.

FO: So the Isseis kind of looked after her. So we all stayed.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.