<Begin Segment 5>

SS: And so in 1931 when we, from Peru went to Hawaii, the two people who certified his birth and all, and then he stayed in the immigration for a month until they cleared him. And they not only had to clear his birth, they had to clear if he was loyal or not, and that's when Dad said he was in the Japanese army and all and if Dad was going to lie, he wouldn't have told them. The thing that I get very annoyed with is that when the war started they didn't come to pick him up right away, it was about ten months after that they picked him up. And I don't know if it's true or not, but they said one of the Japanese, resident, his friend, whoever, reported him to the FBI, but my dad was just pulled in from his working place. We were not notified that he was pulled in... and then, I went and sat in the military person's office and said, "My mom is a mess because we have no money and she wants to visit Dad to see what we can do." And they said, "Well, we don't give visiting passes until the person is there for several months." I was only seventeen, but I thought, "Gee, Mom's crying and then we don't have Dad." So I said to the guy, shaking, but I said, "You know I'm not moving out of here 'til you give my mom a pass to go and visit Dad," and that officer was really nice 'cause he gave us a pass. And people were surprised that Mom got to visit Dad in less than a month's time and... and then they said either they were going to ship Dad to the stateside, alone, or the family can go with him. I was only couple months short of being eighteen, but because my parents didn't want to separate the family, they didn't sign the guardianship over to my mom's sisters, so I was forced to go into camp with them. And we were sent to Jerome.

DG: It seems like you would have more to say about it. Still... how could you go along with this?

SS: So long as my parents did not sign my guardianship over, no matter how much I cried, how much I fought, I had to go. That was it, you know the rules here. Unless you sign the guardianship over, if you're under age, there's nothing you can do.

DG: Why was your father so determined to keep you with him?

SS: I think when they pulled him in, he really missed the family, I think, and with the war he just didn't want the family separated.

DG: But didn't he understand that this was your senior year?

SS: He said the family was more important. And the thing about the evacuation that I, that really hurts me yet, is that when my dad got interned -- other than my mom's family, and my girlfriend Marion and my dad's friend, Chungie, who was a Chinese American -- hardly anyone would come over. In fact, they said, "You have your family so we know you're taken care of." But can you imagine not having any friends come near you?

DG: This was from October to February? Or January?

SS: Until January. That's right. And when even your relatives don't come near, it's something.

DG: Then, you were going to school weren't you?

SS: I couldn't because...

DG: You couldn't go to school?

SS: I, because I was too busy, right after he got interned. Then Mom, we had to -- the FBI came, they ransacked through the house to see if we had anything that was detrimental to the U.S. They couldn't find a thing, we were too poor. We were... in those days, the parents worked at stevedoring or housework, and you just barely make a living.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.