<Begin Segment 17>

MN: So now in 1943, the so-called "loyalty questionnaire" came out. Was this an issue with your family?

BS: Not really. I never heard about it until after camp, and I was too young for that. So it was only for those that were seventeen and older that had to fill that out. But I remember they said, they had the standard questions, "Where were you born?" "Where was your education?" "What's your job?" But the controversial question was number 27. Basically it said, "Are you willing to fight for the United States of America wherever asked?" People didn't know how to answer that because seventeen years old, you're still in high school, does that mean you'll go in the army today if you said yes, or would they wait until after you graduated high school? Or what would happen if you say no? I didn't know how to answer that. Then the real controversial question was question number 28. Basically it says, "Are you willing to be, give up your loyalty to the emperor of Japan and have loyalty to America?" So again, seventeen-year-old, I don't think the young Niseis would have loyalty to the emperor of Japan. So if they said no, they don't have loyalty, so how can they give it up? And if they said yes, then that means they had loyalty to the emperor of Japan, and still the government would look down upon them. And especially it was bad for the Issei people because they couldn't get American citizenship. And if they gave up their loyalty to them from Japan, they're a man without a country. So they couldn't say yes, they'll give it up.

So I think close to a thousand persons in Heart Mountain said no or did not answer it. If you didn't answer it, it's considered a "no" answer, so they were shipped off to Tule Lake. That was the segregated camp for so-called "troublemakers," or those that wanted to go back to camp.

MN: Or go back to Japan.

BS: Yes, I'm sorry. Go back to Japan. Not go back to camp.

MN: Now, during the war years, did you ever hear your father say that he wanted to return to Japan?

BS: No, I never heard that. But I found out later because I asked for his record in the National Archives, oh, maybe twenty years ago I asked for it after he was gone. And then I was reading that, and he did sign up to go back to Japan. But then, in camp, he says, no, he changed his mind. And when he was interviewed how come he changed his mind, he says, oh, he thought it was just an opportunity to go visit Japan and come back. He didn't think it was to stay in Japan. So that's why he said yes the first time, that he wanted to go back to Japan. But he said, the second time, he said no. His life is here in America and he has his family here, so he wanted to stay. So they did approve the second note to go back to Japan.

MN: Now what about your mother? Do you remember what your mother was doing in camp?

BS: No, she was actually a housewife and a new mother again, because my brother was born in December of 1942. So she kept busy nurturing him during the camp years.

MN: Do you recall if your parents ever had a victory garden?

BS: No, I'm pretty sure we did not. Not too many people had so-called gardens or even victory gardens, growing vegetables, because it was a desert-like atmosphere. And then the growing season in Wyoming is very short, so there wasn't too many so-called victory gardens or flowers in camp.

MN: And you got this postcard or photo from Manzanar when you were at Heart Mountain?

BS: Yes. One of my friends, one of my friends from prewar, she wrote to me from Manzanar and she sent me a picture of herself standing by a garden at her barrack. I was, oh, jealous. I said, I wish we had something like that, because in Wyoming we didn't have any greenery, not even trees. So it was really stark, naked, but just barren dirt. So I really envied that.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.