<Begin Segment 9>

TI: After being in Topaz for several months, the camp officials or the government came out with a "loyalty questionnaire."

KY: Oh, yeah.

TI: Do you remember that?

KY: Oh, yeah. I got the questionnaire and I just put "yes-yes." And then I think it's about two or three months later, I got a draft notice.

TI: Let me explain. So when you say "yes-yes," there were two questions, question number 27 and 28. One said that you would forswear any allegiance to the emperor of Japan.

KY: That's right.

TI: And you said "yes," that you had no allegiance to Japan.

KY: That's right.

TI: And hen the second one, "yes," would be the question, would you be willing to serve in the armed services of the United States, and you said yes.

KY: Yes.

TI: Did you think about the answering and why "yes"? Because that was a controversial question. Some people said "no-no" or "yes-no."

KY: I was thinking of "no-no." I thought I wrote "no-no," but they said, no, I wrote "yes-yes." But the thing is, I had nobody in Japan. So why would I want to go to Japan? So I figured this was my country, so I just put "yes-yes" and I stayed. But when they told me to come in the army, I said, "No, no, I'm not going in the army." Because the thing is, because I said "yes-yes," but that's if I'm outside. But if I'm in camp, in a concentration camp, I'm not going to go in the service.

TI: Okay, so let's do it in a couple steps. So the army first came into the camp and asked for volunteers.

KY: That's right.

TI: So at Topaz, did very many men volunteer to go into the army?

KY: No, in Topaz there were very few. So they had drafted them.

TI: Right. So after that, when they came back...

KY: And they started drafting.

TI: ...they reinstituted the draft. They originally enlisted men like from 1-A to 4-C.

KY: There was no more 4-Cs.

TI: Yeah, and then they went back to 1-A, and then they started drafting you and other men. So how did you feel about that, being drafted? When they drafted you, where were you thinking, what was your reaction?

KY: Oh, I was going to go. I was going to go in the service, but not from camp.

CL: Right after the "loyalty questionnaire" was distributed, your father made a decision for the family, is that correct?

KY: Yes. But I don't know anything about that. After I was, draft notice came and they picked me up because I wouldn't go, I don't know what happened to the family. So whatever my father said or my mother did after that, I had no connections with the family.

CL: But before the draft, did he suggest that the family ask for repatriation?

KY: No, no. As far as I know, he asked nothing like that. They just left things as it is, because he had five boys in the family. So he just left things as is. But I think he kind of changed his mind after I was drafted and wouldn't go in the service. And while I was in the county jail, one of my brothers, because there was three of us that wouldn't go, but one of my brothers that was below me couldn't stand jail.

TI: Okay, before we go there, I want to get back to your decision. You said earlier, when you got the notice, you said, yes, would do this if you weren't in this camp.

KY: That's right. But I never answered that question like that. I just, it was all in my mind, nobody else's.

TI: Now, for you to think that way, did you talk to any other men about that?

KY: No.

TI: Or how about your brothers? You said two brothers came with you.

KY: No, I never did.

TI: Now, do you think your brother were influenced by your decision, were they kind of watching what you did?

KY: Yeah. Well, our family was real close. So that my brothers just followed right behind me. And I think it was a month, two months after, they come walking in the door at the county jail. I said, "What are you doing here?" They said, "Well, we didn't go in the draft."

TI: So you went first.

KY: I was first. I was the first one from the camp.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.