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LH: And I want to go again still with Tule Lake. Of course, after they had the questionnaire, they decided Tule Lake would be the segregation center where they would send the people who were "no-nos" or, or who basically didn't "pass" the loyalty questionnaire. How did, how did that change the camp?

FF: They segregated the camp. They made a camp within the camp, you know. The extreme "no-nos" were put into a different section of the camp who were, shall we say, the antagonists who were supposedly the "pro-Japan" mentality. But in a sense, even I look back I can't blame them. When you're older, you lost your business, and what could this country do for you when you get out, even if you lost the war -- I mean, if Japan lost the war? They were still determined to go back, and a lot of them did go back. But of course I understood they all, well, in fact, I know they came back. They had the opportunity to -- they were lucky to do that. But it was sad because... I think that camp life with the "no-nos" and the "yes-yes" or whatever -- there were people like us who were stuck. I was there because Dad's gonna come from Missoula, Montana -- I mean, Santa Fe, New Mexico to Tule Lake. And in order for him to be released -- they won't release him to a city. So we didn't want to go back to Chicago. So they'll release him to a camp like Tule Lake, which is very guarded. They had a barbed wire fence, as well as another set of fences, you know. And so the camp supposed to be "the loyal Japan" group of... well, they want to repatriate, some of 'em wanted to repatriate to Japan. My folks didn't. It was just that circumstances I could be with Dad and Mom and whoever was left with us and at that time, by that time I think it was just me, Mom and Dad, everyone else had left. Oh, Seibo was there, Seibo is the oldest brother, and he was married and had children. So he and I were about the only one, all the rest left camp.

And so it was a tough situation, because we were forced to go to Japanese school, and I have an interesting story about that. I thought, "I'm not too bad at Japanese," so they, as a fourteen years old, I went into the third grade level, which is about right, 'cause of what you learn in Japan school, it's always below your American school level. Third grade thinking, "I could pass that." And so as you read the Japanese hon or the book, I'm so lousy that the teacher says, "Do you really know how to read?" And I said, "Well, I don't know, I'm trying." He says, "You know what? We're gonna put you in the, another class," which actually was a nice way for him to say, "You're demoted." So I go to the second, second grade level and I wasn't too bad, I thought. And then they talked about shaving your hair, because, you know, if we're gonna be Japanese people who are going to go back to Japan, you gotta get the, they called it bonborobozu or whatever word it was. And then I said, "Hey, I'm gonna lose all my curls." You know, I used to have this real pachuco curly hair. I said, "I ain't gonna let them touch that." But then what happened was -- I tried to do well and he says, "I think we are gonna have to send you to another class," and not knowing it's the next level down again. In first grade, I thought -- I could tell that was the first grade -- and not knowing I did the right thing, because they said, "You're so lousy that it would be a shame to have you back in Japan, 'cause it would be embarrassing to think you were a Japanese student who could hardly speak," or read, rather. And I think I could speak to some degree but... but anyway they were very upset, and so when Mom saw me come home with my long hair, she says, "What happened?" And I says, "Mom, they threw me out of school." In a sense, that worked out, because, see, if you quit, it puts the sham on my folks, because they will think my folks had influenced not going to Japanese school. But when they kick you out, it was almost like saying, "We don't need you, we'll forget you." And that's what I wanted, so I kept my hair, I got my teenage pride back.

But that part of it was very interesting 'cause some of my other friends, really interesting enough, were of the same. There was two out of the maybe six guys that I buddied around with had that happen to them, too. They were demoted and kept their hair and I said... but we really didn't think of it in terms of hair. Although we thought if we had to, we had to. But it's just that my interest in excelling in a foreign language -- I could speak it, but it's just too tough to read. And writing, I wasn't the strongest in writing, maybe that's the art in me that I could use my hand. But to be having to read fluently and speak properly, I just didn't have that strong desire and I don't think the teacher really looked upon me as a good candidate for Japan. Not that I wanted to go back. And my folks didn't -- they had no desire for us to go back to Japan.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.