<Begin Segment 13>

DH: And you remember the day that your father was taken. You were telling us about that before.

IN: Yes. Because mainly like her family, we were clearing land also, and we had dynamite at home in the shed. And I had told the local deputy sheriff that, I had reported to him that I did have the powder and... well, it so happened that the day that the FBI raided the island, I was visiting another family and over the radio they announced that the FBI was on Bainbridge Island and checking out the various families. And so I said to my friend hey, I better get home. They might be coming to my place or already might have been there. So I went home, but the FBI didn't show up 'til late afternoon and they're already broadcasting over the air that so they were, it was no big secret or anything, but they did finally come. There was two people, I think, and the local deputy sheriff, and I told the deputy sheriff, "Hey, Jim, don't you remember I reported the powder to you," but he was too scared so acknowledge it, but so they said they will have to take your dad. And it so happened the FBI agent was the same age as myself, and he was very good about everything. So they took him and they went to the immigration station in Seattle, and my dad went. They turned him loose after one night. And he said that... this was not a, you know, they had a dossier on all the older Japanese, and they had no reason to take my dad. And it so happened that he said some people had almost pages and pages about their past history. They had already investigated most of the Japanese, and he mentioned one case where they were interrogating this older man and asked him, "Have you ever been out of the United States?" and the guy says, "No, I've never." Then they said well, in such and such a year you were up in the cannery in Alaska, the fish cannery in Alaska, you worked out there. And they had all this information already.

DH: You said that it was sort of a propaganda ploy because most people on the island had to report their dynamite and all that kind of thing, and then you had heard it on the radio.

IN: Yes. In retrospect, I would say that it was a propaganda situation where they were trying to play to the public.

DH: Yeah.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.