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But he does so well, he winds up being transferred to what I guess can be considered a skilled nursing facility today. And this is located in the Santa Monica area, don't know the name of the facility or anything. But he was doing well enough to help out in the kitchen staff, and he was in charge of monitoring the inventory and being an econ major, good with numbers. He was just really on top of everything. And he noticed that some of the goods were being pilfered somehow. It wasn't the staff, because the staff was all former TB patients or recuperating TB patients. And so he confronted the director on it, and he knew, pretty much, that it was the director who was pilfering the "good stuff" for his own family. So he went straight to his office and told him, "I got the numbers and you're doing this. You're cheating the families of the patients who are paying you money to have you take care of their relatives and sons and daughters here. It's got to stop." So the director told him, "Jack don't worry, I've got it under control. It's not going to happen again." And he immediately called the FBI and called my dad a "Jap troublemaker," and, "You got to pick this guy up and get him out of here." So that happened.

BN: Just to be clear, this is before the war started?

JF: I think it must have been... that he was there in early 1942.

BN: So it was after the war had started.

JF: Yeah, and probably after the Executive Order 9066.

BN: And then just to go back, I think you didn't mention where your dad went to school.

JF: Oh, Belmont High School.

BN: No, I mean, college.

JF: Oh, UCLA.

BN: UCLA. And then he graduated with the economics degree. And then, well, let's jump to the wartime then. He's in this institution, he's separate from the family, then Pearl Harbor comes. Then he has his, you mentioned the boss kind of sics the FBI on him, and then what... can you kind of pick up the story from there?

JF: Yeah. He climbs into the car of this FBI agent who's come to take him to wherever and asks him where we're going. And he said, "I'm supposed to take you to Tule Lake, that's where they take all the 'Jap' troublemakers." It's a long road for a trip up there.

BN: Well, it's hundreds of miles away from down here.

JF: So along the way, my dad enjoyed talking to people, and of course he's well-read, he can talk on any topic. And he and the FBI agent kind of become road buddies during this trip. And they stop... well, along the way, my dad was able to explain his side of the story to this agent. And then other things happened, my dad, he used to sing and dance and he had a good voice, singing voice. So he wound up singing along with Frank Sinatra whenever a Sinatra song came on. He still did that like when he was ninety years old, he sang "South of the Border" acapella at his ninetieth birthday. Anyway, the FBI agent and he pulled over to a cafe to have, share a couple of beers because they're now road buddies. And the FBI agent tells him, "Give me a few minutes, I'll be right back." Doesn't know where he goes. Comes back and he tells my dad, "Jack, you're not going to go to Tule Lake, which is where I was supposed to take you, but you're going to go to Heart Mountain now and I'll take you there myself so you could be with your family. That's where your family has been relocated." That's another long road trip. Unfortunately, after he gets there, in the excitement, I guess, of being reunited with his family and not seeing them for a couple of years now, he fails to get any contact information for that agent and they lose track of each other. But he always wanted to get back in touch with him to thank him for making that phone call on his behalf and getting him transferred to be with his family. And that's how he wound up at Heart Mountain.

BN: Interesting story, I've never heard that one, that before.

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