<Begin Segment 11>

TI: So while you're doing this, about this time on the West Coast they're removing the families from places like --

YU: We were, while we were doing basic training in Arkansas, yes, they were starting to move. And I would get letters saying that they had to move.

TI: And so what happened to your family? Where did they go?

YU: They went to Poston, Arizona.

TI: And who would that be, that would be your parents and who else?

YU: My father, my brother, and my two other brothers.

TI: So it'd be Sam, Henry, and George.

YU: George, yes.

TI: Now, Sam is older than you. Why do you think he wasn't drafted?

YU: I think because he was on the farm and they needed people to work, to run the farm.

TI: Interesting. And then going back to your idea that the ones they drafted were going to college, so they weren't maybe doing something else.

YU: Maybe that was the reason why.

TI: Okay, so they all go to Poston, and then what happened after staying at Poston, during segregation? So they answered what some people call the "loyalty questionnaire" or that leave clearance form, so what happened to the family?

YU: Well, then they had nothing else to do around there, I guess, so I... the people would, people would be very unhappy when they didn't get this, they don't, I don't know. So they would ask my brother to help, because he was a Kibei, so he could speak English as well as Japanese, so they, all the Isseis would ask him, ask my brother if he would talk to them about getting better living conditions or, I don't know what. So he would represent them. He would go --

TI: Interesting, so he became a spokesperson for the, for many of the Isseis.

YU: Spokesman, yeah.

TI: Okay. And so did that put him in a difficult position?

YU: That made him a person that's a leader and he would speak out, so they said, "He's dangerous."

TI: And this is while he's at Poston?

YU: Right, Poston.

TI: Okay. And then, so what happened to him?

YU: Well, they moved him to Santa Fe.

TI: Okay, from Poston to Santa Fe. Now, I'm wondering --

YU: Santa Fe, New Mexico.

TI: Yeah. I mean, technically Santa Fe, New Mexico, that was a Department of Justice internment camp.

YU: Right.

TI: And it was supposed to be for "enemy aliens" or people who were non-U.S. citizens. Your brother Sam was a U.S. citizen.

YU: Right.

TI: Did, do you know if he, did he renounce his citizenship?

YU: No, no.

TI: So they just moved him because they just thought he --

YU: They just moved him, right.

TI: They could do that. So they weren't supposed to do that.

YU: Yeah.

TI: How about your other brothers?

YU: Well, then my brothers kept, they had a judo organization there and they used to practice judo. And eventually they felt that they were also dangerous, and they moved them to Santa Fe too.

TI: The same thing. Interesting.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.