<Begin Segment 8>

SF: Moving ahead a couple of months, or three months, how did you find out about evacuation, and how did that all unfold?

FM: Well the evacuation announcement came as a bolt out of the sky, because the Tolan Congressional Committee hearings were held in the last part of February, and we were thinking that maybe things would come out, resolve themselves favorably for the Japanese Americans as a result of the congressional hearings. On the other hand, when one attended the Congressional Hearings, one was aware of the degree to which the sentiment was anti-Japanese Americans, including Nisei, and only a rare voice here and there would be heard in support of the Nisei. Incidentally, one of the people who spoke out firmly and very vigorously in support of the Japanese Americans was Jesse Steiner. And here was my professor and mentor leading the way here in the Seattle area. Then there was one other person who came out favorably for the Japanese Americans, which surprised me. A man named Mayor Kane, of Tacoma, felt that there was unnecessary hysteria, of concern about the Japanese American population. Now Kane later became, I think he became Senator from the state of Washington, and became known as the pawn of the real estate interests, and had developed an unfavorable home for himself thereby. But my image of Mayor Kane of Tacoma was that he was a strong figure for what was right. And in a way it surprised me that he would've turned out to be what he was subsequently was thought to be. Simply because there were so few people who came out in the face of the general media, anti-Japanese attack, and came out in support of the Japanese Americans. So, yeah the expectation therefore was, that things were not going well. And then of course, suddenly in early March, we have this exclusion order being announced by General DeWitt. And thereafter the name General DeWitt became anathema for the Japanese American population.

SF: Did that, the realization that General DeWitt had done this in March, did this surprise people, the majority of people, or...?

FM: Oh yes, I think it came as a total surprise that suddenly there's this announcement that the Japanese American population, and the Issei, were to be evacuated. Going back a little further, in February I think there was concern that the Issei might be forced to leave. On the other hand, there was no expectation I think, that Nisei, as Japanese American citizens, would also be required to be removed. That was the shocking part of the DeWitt announcement.

SF: Well how did most people respond to that, most Niseis I mean. That, this total surprise, that they, American citizens, were gonna' be moved out?

FM: Yeah, I guess...my recollection is that there was a helpless feeling. That, you know, "What can we do in the face of this thing?" Perhaps there might have been some thought of rebellion against, or resistance against the order. But there was little evidence that this took on any kind of organized form.

SF: There were no meetings?

FM: No, in fact the one meeting that I recall -- held by the JACL -- after the -- let's see, it could not have been after curfew was called. But, it was a meeting here in the community, at which the question was raised as to how the Japanese American population, or the Japanese community should respond in the face of the evacuation order. And this was before, this was at a time when the evacuation order also carried the proviso that if the Japanese population chose to move out voluntarily from this area themselves, that was permissible. The meeting was called therefore, to consider the possibility that we would move as a community. And I remember James Sakamoto speaking very hopefully of this area in Missouri, where he said he knew there was a possibility of buying out property and making a community, an ideal community, democratic community of Japanese people. We would, in a sense, move bodily this community from Seattle to Missouri, and recreate our lives in a new scene, where we would demonstrate our loyalty to the country and this kind of thing you see.

The reason I remembered it is, that in sociological theory, as I had learned by then, there is the theory that in the face of extreme distress why, people often have utopian dreams of what they might do to resolve their difficulties. And I saw this as that kind of dreaming, about what we might do in the face of the difficulty. I also foresaw that this was not a very realistic possibility. But it seemed to us then, as about the only way in which we could react to the disaster that was confronting us, namely of being forced out of our homes, and being sent we, God only knew, where.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.