<Begin Segment 10>

TI: Now, after several months at Tule Lake, so I think it was like the beginning of, or end of '42, beginning of '43, they came out with a "loyalty questionnaire." Do you remember that?

KG: Oh, yes.

TI: So let's talk about that. How was that presented to the people at Tule Lake?

KG: Well, that created a tremendous conflict among the people, especially among the Isseis. Because as Isseis, they were prohibited from having properties and all that, and then for them to denounce or refuse the emperor, that would have made them a stateless individual, so that really created a problem. As far as my parents, my dad was concerned, by that time, my brother had left for school and was kicked out, and that's when my dad decided we had to stay put, he was going to sit the war out before he took any action. And as far as that questionnaire was concerned, he registered, but he left the two questions blank.

TI: So these were questions twenty-seven and twenty-eight. Twenty-seven kind of asking about...

KG: The emperor.

TI: Yeah, "do you forswear any allegiance to the emperor," another one had to do with military service?

KG: Yeah.

TI: Which, as an Issei, he wouldn't be...

KG: No. Well, he just left those two questions blank. But then that designated him as "disloyal" right away, because he had refused to answer.

TI: So let me back up just a little bit and talk first a little bit about your brother. So he was at Tule Lake, and after a little bit...

KG: I think they were out by that.

TI: He then sort of left on kind of a work release or a school release?

KG: They both... yeah, one went out on school and the other one on a farm. A group of kids... the thing is, with parents, it was all right for boys to leave, but not girls, because boys can take care of themselves, and that's not true of girls. You know, it's just a general... well, I couldn't go out anyway, I mean, there was nothing for me to do, since even though I was through with high school, I didn't have a career or anything of that sort. And for girls to go out, it's just too dangerous in terms of what was going on in the outside. But most parents didn't worry too much about boys going out, but that's not the case with girls.

TI: And so it was easier for your parents to see your two older brothers leave camp then, one to work, and then the other one, you said, went to school. But then you mentioned earlier, there was some difficulty?

KG: Well, when he was in school the first week, the student body rioted.

TI: So tell me what kind of school was this?

KG: It was the school that the government... it was kind of like mechanical training. They needed these workers for the war effort, for defense and all that. My brother was interested in planes, and he thought, "Here's an opportunity." It was mechanical training, and that applied to him, it was for him in terms of planes that he was interested in.

TI: And this was the same brother who grew up making model airplanes?

KG: Yeah. And he ended up with his whole life being spent at the Edwards Air Force base.

TI: Okay, but before we go there, so he applies and gets accepted to this school.

KG: He's in school the first week -- there were about seven that went out together. They went out with tremendous fanfare, with, you know, the government said, "Here these kids are going out to school and go on with their life and all that," and then they were in school one week and the student body rioted.

TI: So where was this school?

KG: It was in Minnesota, but I can't recall... Minneapolis probably, and I don't remember the school. But it had to do with some mechanical training that they boys were getting, in which the government needed in terms of the war effort, in terms of defense.

TI: Okay, so these seven Niseis...

KG: Yeah, I think there were seven.

TI: ...go to this school, and then you said in the first week, the other students rioted?

KG: Yeah.

TI: So...

KG: So when it became dangerous for them, they were dropped. They voluntarily, I guess, dropped, because it was too dangerous for them. And right after, shortly after that, the government opened up the, started the 442nd business, and my brother joined immediately.

TI: Okay, so he volunteered.

KG: Oh, yeah.

TI: And was he at that time living outside of camp? Would he have come back to...

KG: No, neither of them came back.

TI: Got it.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2015 Densho. All Rights Reserved.