<Begin Segment 12>

DG: Number five was "Investigation of escheat cases," it said.

NS: What?

DG: Investigation of escheat cases.

NS: Of cases of...

DG: Of problems, I guess, that occurred because people were Japanese, or where they were -- I don't know. I'm not sure what the word escheat means either, but maybe...

NS: Well, a lot of people had lost their jobs. For instance, there were a good many nurses that were laid off and there were teachers -- people who had graduated as teachers -- and they were all laid off at wartime. Most of the girls, I think, were teachers, and they were slow in coming back because of the calendar. But I think they did find jobs when they came back. Slowly there were secretaries and people in those kind of service jobs that was open to people as they came back. And a lot of them came back to their own stores and opened them and had their own jobs, so that they resumed their activities after they came back.

DG: Number six is "Unfair legislation against Japanese workers."

NS: In Seattle?

DG: In Spokane.

NS: In Spokane and Seattle. Well, I think it was unfair that they discriminated and said it was because they were Japanese; they couldn't be hired.

DG: Did it have to do with unions?

NS: With what?

DG: Unions?

NS: No. It was more race than unions. The unions weren't as strong then as they are now, and I don't think that there was too many unions at that time.

DG: Could the Japanese not get into unions at that time though too?

NS: No. They couldn't get into unions because they were restricted to whites only. Very few unions were open to Japanese at that time before the war. I think, perhaps after the war they opened their ranks so that Japanese could join.

DG: There was an incident with grange.

NS: With the grange? I don't know too much about that.

DG: Evidently, they didn't allow any Japanese in the grange either and that was more farmers.

NS: Farm areas, uh-huh.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.