Densho Digital Archive - Yaeko Nakano - Kenichi Nakano - Hiroshi Nakano - Stanley Nakano Interview (denshovh-nyaeko

<Begin Segment 12>

TL: Mrs. Nakano, maybe you could address the question that Hiroshi posed about where George kind of fit in, in that range of Kibei experience, because Tule Lake was so complicated.

YN: Yes, it was. The Kibeis didn't fit in with the Niseis mainly because they spoke nothing but English -- I mean, nothing but Japanese, and they clung together. Most of them were bachelors so they were all doing housework and so they were apart from the Nisei community. They also didn't go dances. Even the ones that came back and lived with their family were misfits in that family. For my part I thought, "I'll have nothing to do with a Kibei; especially I wouldn't ever marry a Kibei." Actually when we had the grocery store, my husband did stop in the grocery store one time. We had a little fountain and he had something to drink before he went up to his sister's house and so I did know who he was.

And so when we went to camp, naturally the Kibeis all stuck together. At the mess hall... at the mess hall my sister and I and another girl, we were waitresses, and after we fed everybody, we sat together to have a meal and we sat three here. The three Kibei including my brother [Ed. note: Narrator meant to say, "husband"], Uncle Mike and another person, Mr. Miki, were dishwashers and they all went to Stadium High School and so they were good friends and so they sat across from us. And the funny thing is that all three of us girls married the three Kibeis. My sister married Mike, Haruko married Mr. Miki, and Mr. Miki and my husband were very good friends. In fact, my husband was best man at their wedding, and my sister and her husband are now deceased, but Haruko and Hisato Miki, being our best friends, are living in Tacoma and we still are good friends. (Narr. note: The three girls were myself, my sister, Mutsumi (Hoshide) Shinoda and Haruko (Oka) Miki. The men were Yoshihiro George Nakano, Shigenori Mike Shinoda and Hisato Miki.)

HN: How did Dad fit in all that, though, I mean, 'cause Uncle Mike was more adamant about going back to Japan.

YN: Yes. Your dad really wanted to become an American and he... in camp, Uncle Mike never danced, Mr. Miki never went to a dance. But Dad, he didn't know how to dance, but he says for me to teach him. He tried to change, tried to show me that he was an American and that's the reason why I began going around with him. Gee, I lost my train of thought now. How does he fit into...

HN: Yeah. We were talking a little bit about... the Kibei experience was real complicated, and like I said, on one end Uncle Mike represented a more militant, I guess, approach.

YN: Yes.

HN: And Dad tried to fit into the Nisei community more.

YN: After segregation, the Hoshidan, as you heard, the "washo washo" group, was very powerful and naturally every Kibei joined that. And so originally your dad was in that "washo washo" group, but he and Mr. Miki got really sick and tired of their policy, of their trying to rule and telling them what to do. And as they became more and more militant, Dad didn't like that at all and so he quit, Mr. Miki and he. On the other hand, Uncle Mike was even stronger. He began teaching the Japanese school. He was very, very militant. (Narr. note: The "washo washo" group were young men who exercised every morning by running around the camp with hachimaki tied around their heads and shouting "washo washo" in cadence.)

The thing that was terrifying was the fact that after my husband quit the Hoshidan, every morning at 6:00 a.m. they came and pounded our door, "Come on out, you dog! Come on out!" And my husband just absolutely refused to go out. And that was very, very terrifying. (Narr. note: Michi Nishiura Weglyn's book, Years of Infamy, states that there were three patriotic organizations formed in the fall of 1944. The Hokoku Seinendan was for young men, the Hokoku Joshi Seinendan for women and girls, and the Sokuji Kikoku Hoshidan for older men.)

So he has always said that he was A-1 in the draft and when they changed it to 4-F is when he was very, very upset about that. And when he went to "no-no" the question, whether you serve in the army? His reply was that if he was still A-1, that he would have served in the army. But because they took and put him in "unfit for duty, enemy alien," he was very upset about that and because of that he said, "no." But in every way after he met me he really tried to show me that he is an American, that he's just like me. And he say he tried very, very hard to be like me. He was teased a lot from his other Kibei friends when we were going together and after we got married.

TL: Was there any way that he could have qualified for a leave clearance, or because of his status as "Kibei" and "enemy alien" and all that, there was just no question of leaving.

YN: No question. That's why he couldn't come out with us, even. Even after war ended.