<Begin Segment 10>

LH: But your father had... there was a reason why the FBI came to see your father?

MS: Because he was recognized as one of the leaders of his kenjinkai, Kagoshima. They were all groups in the Japanese community and my husband was a Kagoshima-ken person. And...

LH: Your father.

MS: And he was a spokesman for that group. Well, all the different leaders of the community, they even took reverends, they took presidents of organizations, people who were designated as people that could lead the community one way or the other, were visited. And many of them were just taken away. So there was this system of people calling each other and just warning them that they were on their way to your place.

LH: So it wasn't a complete surprise when they showed up at your door?

MS: No, no, no, it wasn't. They knew that eventually, everyone kind of knew that eventually if they had someone, a father that seemed to have a role in the community then that person will be visited, too. So then when they finally came to our house, I remember being in the other room with my two brothers and my mother. And there were these two big guys that came and were talking to my dad about this. And then my mother told me, she whispered in my ear, in Japanese, to run over there and grab hold of Papa and start crying. And then she told the other two, my two brothers, to go there and just look very sad. So then we did as we were told. I didn't quite understand why we were doing this, but at that point you do what your parents tell you to do and especially what Mama said. So I ran over there and I grabbed a hold of his pant legs and I started crying and hollering, and then my brothers were there holding onto Papa. And my dad was startled. But then he saw the effect it had on the FBI agents. They kind of looked, you know, and everything, and they had all this bedlam and crying and everything going on. So finally they left and then after, I was to learn that my mother had purposely planned this, that she would have us kids run over there and make such a scene that they would think twice about -- because actually it was left up to each of the visitors to determine whether that person would be, one to removed. And I guess at the beginning when they started picking people up they didn't know this. And later on they began to see that these are human beings that are doing this. Even if they are told their orders are to go and grab a person, they couldn't help but be affected by a family man or something.

LH: Your mother used some quick thinking.

MS: That's right. I think she... my mother had some reserves in her that she never showed us until it really was necessary, like standing firm about not going back to Japan and then at this point doing that. But she never really used that too often. I always thought of her as very passive and submissive.

LH: But as a result, what happened to your father?

MS: Oh, then he thought about that and he said, you know, if he's going to have to stay here and he's going to beat this and survive this, he's going to become 150 percent American although he wasn't. He was still an alien. He said he's going to be one of those loyal aliens and he's going to show the United States government how loyal he is. So...

LH: From that point?

MS: From that point on.

LH: And what happened to the FBI people?

MS: I don't know. They never came back.

LH: And your father didn't have to go?

MS: No, he didn't have to go. So my mother has often said when they're arguing about something and he's saying she's wrong, then she says, "Remember the time..." [Laughs] And so she really knew in her mind that there, they had to do something to stop this because all these families that were left without their fathers and husbands, that was really tragic. But they knew that they were trying to cripple the community from mounting any kind of protest that way. Not that I think we would have protested at that time. I don't think it was within the group to do that. Because, not because they were not strong. It was that they knew that given the situation they're in, that they're going to have to deal with it in the best way they can, and to fight against it might mean that they will be all killed or all jailed and their families.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.