<Begin Segment 3>

[Translated from Japanese]

I2: What is the Tule Lake incident?

TY: There was an incident at the food warehouse at Tule Lake. This incident drew international attention. This was a big issue.

I2: Do you mean the camp started facing a food shortage?

TY: [Shakes head]

I1: Or conflicts among the groups in the camp?

I2: We are aware of conflicts among the groups, but I thought the riot was organized against the administration.

TY: All leaders such as regional leaders and block leaders were loyal to the Japanese government. There might have been some people who tried to stay in the States. Some people might have stayed there to dodge the draft. People were there for different reasons. One thing I can say is that people who answered the loyalty questions in other camps clearly voiced what they stood for. Tule Lake was the place where original incarcerees were mixed with people sent from other camps because of their belief. It was muddy and mixed, and we had to watch our back every day. We repeatedly asked Mr. Best to send those who were loyal to the U.S. government away and make the camp clearly a segregation camp.

I1: But he didn't listen.

TY: He did not listen. We heard that Mr. Myer was coming. We wanted to hold a meeting with him immediately and demand better living conditions in the camp and appeal the necessity of re-segregation. That was on November 1st, and interviews were on November 3rd. The food warehouse incident occurred on the evening of November 4th when the leaders were having a meeting. That would not have been a big deal. Taking away two truckloads of food wasn't a big problem. We tried to calm down the situation but, instead, we were captured and severely tortured. You were referring to the jail and the stockade yesterday, and it must be about a group of the motor pool people. That is where the first incident occurred. Someone stole trucks. Those who stole the trucks came to the warehouse to steal food, while people were panicking about the disappearance of the trucks. The robbers were caught by Kobayashi when they were about to take off. Bob Hayashida was in charge of the motor pool and was sent to the stockade.

I1: That was where you heard about the motor pool incident?

TY: Right. That was when I heard about the stolen trucks for the first time. I realized there was another incident before the warehouse break-in. The administration tried to tie the two incidents together and started to blame us for that. We didn't know anything about the first incident at all. Not until we met Bob Hayashida at the stockade and were told there was a previous incident. No one must have known about it. The motor pool people complained that they got into trouble and were sent to the stockade because of the incident.

I1: It was the WRA that first caused the trouble, but...

TY: Right. They tried to shift the responsibility to us Japanese. They tortured us until the morning, saying, "Fess up. You are the troublemakers." They kept telling us to confess but it was their very people who actually did it.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright (c) 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.