<Begin Segment 23>

MN: Okay. I wanted to get into the big strike in Poston in November 1942. You were part of this strike. Now, when the strike happened, were you there all the time or did you go back and forth to your barrack?

MT: No, we slept there. Ate there and slept there.

MN: Where did you get the food?

MT: From the kitchen. I told you last time you were here, we have a Ferguson, a tractor, we can go anywhere we wanted to except when they caught us racing each other and they took it away. Then we still had the truck, so the trucks go around to the kitchen and bring the food.

MN: Now, what about like, did you at least go back to your barrack to change your clothes and take a shower?

MT: Gee, you no, I don't remember going home to even change clothes. Actually, when you're in camp, gee, I don't think we changed clothes too often. We must have smelled good. [Laughs] As a matter of fact, we dug a hole under the barrack so that we can stay cool in the noontime, and we used to play cards there or whatever. Just dug the hole out there. We stayed underneath there until evening time, it's cooler there than up in the barrack.

MN: Going back to the protest strike, where was the center of the protest?

MT: Well, there was a, what they call a... they used to call them "dogs," inu, they were the people that was informing, saying, "Oh, he said this and that." And then the officers would come in and take them and take them to a prison, huh? Then they got hold of the one guy, and he says, "I'm innocent. Somebody else just told me the wrong information." They said, "No, we're going to take you out of camp." That's when the strike came out. Said, "No, you're not going to take him out if he's saying he didn't do anything. Why you going to take him out for?" All us young people got real angry and surrounded the police station, because that's where the prison was and that's where the store was, too, anyway. We just surrounded the place and said, "No, you're not going to take him out." They said, "Well, we're going to come in with the soldiers with guns." "Come then, but you're not going to take him out without a fight." And we were ready to fight. So they never did come in.

MN: Now you said you had this Ferguson tractor.

MT: No, but they took it away before then.

MN: But then what if the army had come in at that time? What were you gonna use the tractor for?

MT: Well, nobody was gonna use the tractor. We believed in just our hands, that's all we had. That and whatever sticks we're going to pick up. Like I say, we were chopping the mesquite tree like that, the branches? We could get all of that so we could make some club. We're gonna fight rifles with sticks. But we were determined, "No, you're not going to come in, take 'em out," they never did come in. Because around that place there twenty-four hours a day.

MN: But you really could have been killed if the army came in. Weren't you scared?

MT: Oh, yeah, if they came in and started shooting, yeah. So? We didn't care. We were already mad anyway, because they put us in camp.

MN: What about your mother? Did she come over and say maybe you shouldn't be involved in this?

MT: No. She was still working in the kitchen, getting her twelve bucks.

MN: Now, how many people from your block participated in this?

MT: Gee, all of us that were young. I would say there was about over twenty of us. We have lot of people from 15 into Block 20, 21. It's one of the biggest ones, anyway. That's why, like I said, when we got together, know each other real well, and when we start exercising, no other blocks came in to push us around. They just, "Stay away from us, we're not going to bother you, you're not going to bother us." So we have our dances, first thing we do is stand around by the door, and, "Oh yeah, our block, so come on in, come on in. Hey, you can't come in 'cause you're outside and we know where you're from. You're from the other end of the camp." So they say, "Okay," and they just leave. Because like I say, we had about twenty of us right there by the door.

MN: What about your brother? Was he involved in this protest?

MT: Yes, he was there, too. But he was quiet. Like I say, he's more on the timid side now. He wasn't hotheaded like me.

MN: How did you first hear that this protest was gonna happen?

MT: You mean about that guy? Well, before that, a lot of 'em were getting beat up. They said, "Oh, he's an inu," and they were beatin' 'em up. So the people in the office, the gate, people says, "Hey, you're beating up too many of 'em," and they're not getting any more information because those guys are getting scared. So that's the way it was, so they just quit. In a way, why were they informing what was going on? They just shouldn't be doing that kind of stuff. One thing I found out later was they were getting money. If they turned one guy in, they got money. Then they heard, "How come he gets a check from the federal government?" They get twenty dollars if they tell something like that. Then they started saying, "Hey, maybe he's an informant. Then they'd beat up one, and then they'd beat up another one, then it got out of hand. So the office says, "Hey, we're gonna pick that guy up and take him to federal prison," that's when we said, "No, you're not."

MN: Do you know if a lot of these informants were JACL?

MT: Gee, I don't know. But I know that it must be true that they were informing, otherwise, why would they get a government check when nobody else was getting it? There was a guy, he's always going to the office, what for? People began to watch because people were getting picked up because, "He's a dog," and he informed on him, and the guy gets picked up and taken? That's the reason why they had that Tule Lake deal, in camp, they sent him to Tule Lake.

MN: Now, if the administration had brought in the army, and it became violent, were you prepared to die?

MT: Oh, yeah, we said, "Hey, we're not going to let him go," okay, we're not going to do it. We all picked up sticks and things like that.

MN: When did you know the protest was over?

MT: Well, when they didn't come in and then they said, "Okay, we're not going to come in and take him out." And they let him out of jail. We said, "Okay, it's over then," so everybody just went back doing what they're supposed to be doing, not what they were doing.

MN: Why was it important for you to participate in this protest?

MT: I was still angry 'cause my father... kept telling 'em, "Why is my father over there in New Mexico or Arizona or somewhere? And my mother's here in Arizona, why can't he come over and lived with my mother here?" And they'll start coming out with the 27 and 28.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.