<Begin Segment 20>

MN: Now you said your family moved from Block 34 to 75. Why did you move?

YK: I don't know why. We were just sent over there, and then as I said, that area, it was much more militant towards the administration. And we were in Block 75, which was more, we were, had come from different blocks. And so we felt intimidated by those in the other blocks. The kids seemed more defiant and sure of themselves. We were sort of the outsiders.

MN: So this "Alaska" area, were they people from a certain region, from central California or Imperial Valley?

YK: Well, some of them were from Hawaii, and some were from Manzanar. Manzanar had their own riots there. So it was a more militant portion in the camp.

MN: So you had Kinzo Wakayama in your area, is that right? Kinzo Wakayama? He was from Manzanar, one of the leaders of the Hoshidan?

YK: No, I don't...

MN: Don't recall?

YK: I don't recall any names. But now that you mention the Hoshidan, they formed and said that they had come to the mess hall and (...) the exercise classes (where there) were a lot of (people) outdoors every morning with the exercises, and they would try to recruit, saying that, "Look at what they're doing to us, you don't get decent food unless we organize (against) the administration, you go as individuals, the administration's going to ignore you. So we need to organize and protest as a group." So eventually my father, since a lot of them were speaking Japanese, then he joined, and my oldest brother and my brother Skip was eighteen at the time, and my sister, they joined at the encouragement of our father. But then after that, so there were some protests and so forth. And then after that came the renunciation issue. And so there was a big negative feeling that here we were with the "loyalty oath" again. And so the Hoshidan was saying, "Look, now they want to say you could renounce your citizenship. Our citizenship is worthless anyway, look what they're doing to us. In fact, the prisoners of war have more rights than we do. And so as a protest, you should renounce." And so a lot of people in Tule Lake renounced, mainly out of civil disobedience and protest. So including my brothers and sister. Of course, the rest of us were too young.

But then subsequent to that, one of the reasons they wanted us to renounce is that when they were talking about a prisoner exchange, it was brought out that you can't exchange American citizens, and that's why they wanted us to renounce. And so, but then they renounced out of protests. So then they thought, well, gee, they weren't expecting that many to renounce, and so they accused the Hoshidan of fomenting trouble and encouraging people to protest. And so they got the membership list, and they first took all the leaders and sent them to the United States Department of Justice detention centers. And my father and brothers were not really very active, so we felt they were safe. But my oldest brother got sent to Crystal City, Texas, and my father and my brother, who was only about eighteen or nineteen at the time, went to Bismarck, North Dakota, in the detention center there. So here, of our family of eleven, we were broken into six pieces. There was just my mother and my older sister, and then the other three of us were still kids. So that's all that was left in Tule Lake, and we certainly weren't any threat to the U.S. government. But anyhow, so I felt pretty out of it, 'cause I always had my father and my five older brothers watching over me, and here I was the only son, and I was only about fourteen, thirteen, fourteen, at the time.

MN: Let me ask you a little bit about the Hoshidan activities. You said your father and Tadao and Skip were in the Hoshidan. Your sister must have been a Joshidan, is that right? 'Cause they had a separate girl's group?

YK: Yeah. She probably wasn't in, I don't recall. But she, when the renunciation came, she did renounce, too.

MN: Did your father and brothers get the bouzu haircut?

YK: I don't really recall. I know I had one.

MN: Who gave you the bouzu haircut?

YK: I think my mother did.

MN: And why did she give you a bouzu haircut?

YK: Well, that was the thing. Everybody had it. Us young boys had a bouzu haircut.

MN: I understand they had a separate group for the younger boys called the Seinendan. Were you in the Seinendan?

YK: No, I was too young.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.