<Begin Segment 7>

BN: Now, you have some memories, actually of the riot/uprising that took place in December, right?

WS: Yeah.

BN: What do you remember about that?

WS: Well, they were after those JACL people, I think. Beating them up or something, hiding in the hospital, we lived in the hospital block, and they had a jail right at the entrance to the camp, that's where all the demonstrations were taking place, and the guards and everything. That's when they started shooting, that's when people got hit. It was cold, so when we left that area, just before they started shooting, we can hear the shots after about a block away. Well, luckily, we left a little early.

BN: So were you kind of part of... did you see the group kind of going after people?

WS: Yeah, they were after the JACL people.

BN: But, I mean, you saw it? You actually saw the...

WS: People, yeah. The groups, they were going looking for them. Because we lived in that hospital block, 28 and 29. That's where some of them lived, I think Fred Tayama lived in 28.

BN: Were you scared or excited or kind of a combination?

WS: I didn't know what was going to happen. It was a crazy time. People were upset.

BN: Now, I wanted to go back, I think when you were in Block... when you first got there in Block 9, who did you, I mean, it was your family, but was it, did you live with other people as well?

WS: The Morizawas were our great uncle and aunt, and she had a sister. So when we got there, we lived with, in that Block 9, and then we were able to move to Block 29.

BN: But you weren't in the same room, you were in the same block?

WS: Same block.

BN: Now, after the riot, the uprising, there was the "loyalty questionnaire" episode. You're a teenager, but are you aware that that was going on, and what was going on within your family?

WS: Sure, because I had an uncle who was raised in Japan, and the mother took off with a couple of kids and went to Japan. I think came back in, like, '39, and worked for the older brother, but he wanted to go back to Japan. So he was one of those who demonstrated for Japan.

BN: Is this on your mother's side?

WS: Mother's side, yeah.

BN: So it's her brother?

WS: Right.

BN: Did he eventually go to Tule Lake?

WS: Yeah, he did.

BN: And then what about within your family? Was there any discussion or question of what they were going to do?

WS: No, because they were all Americans. No matter what, she would be American, she would do anything the government would tell her.

BN: So no drama with your family, with your immediate family.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.