<Begin Segment 17>

FA: Could you describe removal of James Omura as editor of the Rocky Shimpo, were you there when he was removed, what happened?

SH: I really don't remember that at all.

FA: You weren't there.

SH: No. I was probably in school when it happened.

FA: What's your recollection of how you learned about it?

SH: I think that I just heard that he had been removed, and then I saw Roy Takeno there, and that was about it. But I didn't know much about it at all. And I had not been keeping in touch with all the things that were going on, so I didn't know about that very much at all.

FA: What did you think about James Omura? When you heard about this, what did you think about the fact that he was removed as editor?

SH: Well, I was kind of surprised because I thought that he did a real good job in helping the newspaper. And I thought that... I had kind of heard a little bit about what he believed in, and that if you're interned in somewhere, you shouldn't have to go to war, or you shouldn't...

AH: Be subject to the draft.

SH: Right. And I thought that makes sense to me. I don't know why they had to remove him. I had no idea. But I knew that the government was, had taken over our newspaper, I knew that. And so I didn't think that... and I don't think my sister had any idea of what was this or that, going along with that.

AH: How did you feel about the government taking over the newspaper?

SH: Well, I thought because my father was a Japanese citizen that... I didn't know why they would do it, but I just didn't think that there was any, we didn't have any right to fight it or anything. If I felt that there had been a right... if I had been older, maybe I would have felt it was really wrong. But I think that I didn't know enough about the government to know that there was "free speech."

AH: Were you aware of the fact that the OWI, the Office of War Information, which was a propagandistic group, subsidized both the Utah Nippo and the Colorado Times, but that the Rocky Shimpo didn't take money from them. They never took a propagandistic, they never took money from a propagandistic agency. Was the family proud of that?

SH: Well, I think that our newspaper felt that whatever we were publishing in the paper, that it was what the editors felt was right. And I know that the Colorado Times tried to say that they were a big newspaper and all, but I know all the time that we always kind of looked down on them and felt that whatever they did, they're probably connected with the JACL and the government, and we had no feelings about whatever they were doing. I didn't know about the money until I saw it in the article.

FA: With Roy Takeno taking over as editor, you said he wasn't much interested in running the paper. What did he do that made you feel he was a government person?

SH: Well, I knew that he was hired by the War Relocation Authority, so that immediately made me think that he's a government person. And so I knew he was getting paid by our newspaper, but I felt like this is like a government agent coming into our newspaper.

FA: If he wasn't interested in the paper, what did he show an interest in day-to-day in the direction of the writing and the production?

SH: I think that he was just maybe putting in things that he felt the JACL would be fine with, and everything that was kind of the general, what would you say... whatever went with the government and JACL, I think that Roy Takeno would go along with. There was a definite kind of a feeling about... I didn't feel like he was a friend or wanted to talk to him or anything.

AH: Would it be a fair appraisal to say that what was a newspaper, when Jimmie was editor, became a newsletter when Roy Takeno took over?

SH: I guess, yes. Maybe taking things from the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post and putting in little interesting articles and then what the JACL felt, then he was their kind of mouthpiece. I felt it was more that way. And so I think our subscription numbers went down, too, I don't know, but I have a feeling it did.

AH: Okay. Now I want to ask a little bit about your husband's removal and how he responded to it, because I know he went on to a prestigious academic career. But at this time he was a young guy, and he just got this job. So was it a blow for him at the time, and how did he get removed? What was the procedure when he got dumped out of the paper?

SH: I really don't know much about that except that I knew that he said that he had to, that he had left. And later on I found out that he was quite upset by it, but then he didn't think he did anything that was bad. But he did start looking for a job he said. And he worked as a houseboy, but he was very proud, so he had these people call him Taisho. [Laughs] Sounded like that.

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