<Begin Segment 6>

TI: So after several months, the administration came out with the "loyalty questionnaire." Do you remember the "loyalty questionnaire"?

EY: Oh, yes, I got the questionnaire. And my father was a chairman of the committee, you know, the block managers had some kind of committee. And his advice to everybody was, "Go home and discuss it within the family," and then you can come up with your answer. Mr. Coverley was an exception. He was the director of Tule Lake, and he insisted that each one, everybody, each one individually should arrive at an answer. And because he said, "Go home and discuss within the family, and send us an answer then." So at two o'clock in the morning, there was knock, knock, knock, and camp security and a few other people came and said, "Mr. Yamashita, we've come to get you. We want you to come with us." And so they took him to the Klamath Falls jail. The next morning, everybody learned of my father's arrest, and so they all went to Mr. Coverley and said, "Mr. Yamashita doesn't do anything that's against the rules." But a couple days later, he did come home. And Mr. Coverley was reassigned, I think, several weeks later.

TI: Now, can we go back? I don't quite understand. Why did they pick him up at two o'clock in the morning? Was it because he told people to make up their own mind?

EY: Because he said for everybody to discuss it at home, go home and talk it over.

TI: Well, what's wrong with that?

EY: Well, Tule Lake was the only camp that didn't allow that. Mr. Coverley's policy was, "You make up your own mind. Don't discuss it." And because he as chief of all the block managers, and his advice was to go home and talk, so he was arrested.

TI: So your father promoted discussion, he wanted people to talk with their families, I understand. And then the administration...

EY: Other camps all did that. All the camps, all discussed it in the family. But not this one. And so... but when, shortly thereafter, Mr. Coverley was reassigned, and so he talked my father, walked up to his office, you know, and he said, "Mr. Coverley, I've come to wish you good luck, come to say goodbye." And Mr. Coverley talked, and he said, "Mr. Yamashita, while I was in camp, I made one big mistake." So my father said, "Well, what can that be?" He said, "That was in putting you in jail." Well, he said, "This is wartime." He said, "Mistakes are bound to be made. I have no bad feelings." And they parted. But I thought that was a good answer.

TI: Going back to the "loyalty questionnaire," was there lots of, I guess, confusion and anger about the questionnaire? Because your father was kind of in charge of other block managers.

EY: I don't think he gave any direction on that. He left it up to the family to discuss it. No, I think my father handled it properly, gave everybody the opportunity to discuss it within the family. And even in talking with Mr. Coverley, he told him that, and honestly talked about it. And so I think that was good. It was the proper thing to do.

TI: Now going back when your father was put in jail at Klamath Falls, what was the reaction of the other Japanese men?

EY: In the morning when they found out, everybody petitioned Mr. Coverley, and they told him that Mr. Yamashita wouldn't do anything wrong. And so, "Please release him." And so he came back home two or three days later.

TI: And how about you? How did you feel when they took your father away?

EY: You know, it was a very difficult time on all of... Dad, to see him arrested. And I was... I was swayed by these things, the emotions that were going on in camp. And you know at one time I requested repatriation, but later I reconsidered and I said, "I think I made a mistake in judgment, so I would like to cancel that." And I had it cancelled. I also had, I entered "no-no," and there was a lieutenant colonel from the Presidio of San Francisco that came to visit and interview me. So I told him that I felt that the government was wrong in doing the things they did. And so until the government corrects it, I think I will not change my answer. And to the very end, I said that I cannot change my answer from "no-no" to anything else, because it's the government that did the wrong thing. [Pauses] And the man, the lieutenant colonel that came to interview me, he said, "I don't blame you. I don't blame you." He said, "Any red-blooded American will be angry." But he said, "I want you to think about things after the war." He said, "The United States and Japan may be best of allies," meaning that what you do, your action, you will not be so blamed for what you say. But I did not change my answer; I kept my "no-no." And I said I would, it can't be done, but then I would keep it a blank. And the lieutenant colonel said, "I don't blame you," and he said, "After the war, Japan and the United States may be best of allies, and I want you to think about those things." And I think he meant to say that you don't have to fear adverse conditions or thoughts if you answer in a different way. But I said, I didn't change my answer. I kept it that way.

TI: Do you think he was trying to persuade you to change it?

EY: I think he was trying to say that you can... the thing that he was trying to do was trying to make me change my answer. He said, "I want you to change your answer." But he didn't find faults with me, and when I made application to go to Chicago to the Illinois Tech, I had no problem. My answer was still "no-no," but still they didn't keep me from going to Chicago.

TI: Okay, so now you went to Chicago. But going back to your original decision, "no-no," what did your father say? I mean...

EY: My father didn't say anything, but my mother was the one that said things. And my mother said, "Are you going to go and fight your mother's country?" And that was the real thing that happened, I think, a very difficult thing for, especially for Japanese children.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.