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TL: Did he serve as a block captain, or in any kind of leadership role?

YB: Oh, yes. He was a project attorney. There was no one else. He was just overworked, and he got the shingles, he was just worked. And before we got out, and managed to get well enough that we could come home, but he really had to work hard.

TL: With his legal training, did he ever consider a legal avenue to question the policy of being in camp?

YB: He was one person that never questioned. He felt that in time of war, there's a reason for an immediate evacuation, and we understood it, that it was actually protecting us. If we were here in Seattle, and the Chinese -- between the Chinese and Japanese, how would they know which is which? And the Chinese might have gotten it too. Because, one of our friends, Tsuneishi, daughter, married a Chinese; and they had two lovely daughters. But she had to evacuate with them. And he stayed of course, and he would come and see her. But when she came back -- I don't know whether he had passed away or what, but the two daughters were growing up and they, I think, married either a Chinese or a Japanese, I'm not sure. But there was some difficulty there, however, 'cause she had to evacuate. It's the same with people who are in Hawaii or in Alaska. If they were married to a Japanese either they could -- if they weren't Japanese, they could stay there, but they picked the choice of coming with their husband to camp.

And this one gal that was part Japanese, part Alaska. So she was constantly with me, she found enough comfort to be with me and talk to me. And she fixed up a Alaskan sort of a stew or a chowder, and put salmon eggs in it. It was rich. It would turn milky putting the eggs in there.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.