<Begin Segment 12>

BK: There was an interval. Your father was taken soon after December 7th. Why do you think he was one of the early ones to be picked up?

JT: Well, we think... we think, and talking and thinking back on it, we think it was because he was a local photographer. And for some reason I think they think that he was passing information by photographs and things, to whom I don't know, the Japanese government I would assume, is what they thought. And prior to that, the folks would get Japanese radio programs on shortwave radio. So my father had erected -- in the back of our house down on the beach -- a very high tall long antenna. And that was so that we could get the reception better. He'd put wires up to the antenna and so his, the radio reception was much clearer. But I think the local townspeople were very aware of that. My sister tells me that she knows, and heard, and saw, that somewhere, in the middle of the night, one night, there were several townspeople down there digging around the pole and seeing what connection there might be or see if there was any type of access or whatever we had to other radio types of things that he could send messages with. And that's what I'm assuming the whole thing was about, that they thought he was passing information on about the area and all that. Which would be, I could understand it 'cause we were pretty close to being the polar route to Japan and all that sort of thing. So I'm sure they must have thought he was a spy of some sort and passing this information on. So we feel that he was singled out that way.

BK: I see. And did you ever see your father, once he was taken away?

JT: Never saw him again until, well, I said a year and a half I think previously, but in the overall picture it was about two years before we were able to see, before he was released to join us. And at that time, about that time, 'course, we were in Minidoka, so he came to Minidoka and stayed with us then after that.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.