<Begin Segment 10>

Male voice: We did an interview with Junkoh and he said that in Moses Lake, some of the local boys would make snowballs with rocks in the middle of them and throw them at 'em.

ZS: Who was that?

Male voice: Junkoh.

ZS: Junks? Oh yeah? Yeah, I heard that he had some problems there. I don't know why they picked on him, but it sounded like he didn't have a very good time. He was, he went to this school where this one building, one small building where all the classes were in one room there. And sounded like he used to get picked on and things like that. That's what I understand, anyway.

FK: I remember his brother Hiro was my age and he used to say he used to get in rock fights every day.

ZS: Is that right?

FK: Yeah. Do you think it was the difference because of the age or because you were in high school then?

ZS: I don't know. It, when I was there in high school I don't recall any problems with anybody there. In fact, I had a good time. I used to play basketball and baseball, and we had a good time, actually. We used to go skating and, and I used to work for this family and their son took me hunting and things like that, hunted for pheasants with his dogs. And went jackrabbit hunting and at nighttime, when shine the headlights on those jackrabbits and pow, shoot 'em with a low gauge shotgun and things like that.

FK: So were there any other Japanese families in...

ZS: Yeah, there were some came later.

FK: Yeah, but you were the only ones there when you moved to Brown's Ranch then?

ZS: Uh-huh, originally.

Lucy Ostrander: ...only about Bainbridge being unique, about people coming back. Other communities, it was not such a friendly... Bainbridge seems to be unique in that people were welcomed back for the most part. And why do you think that was the case?

ZS: Oh, I don't know. I think Walt Woodward had some influence in that sense. And people are kind of prepared for it, you might say. I really don't know for sure. But, the Japanese on Bainbridge at that time, they all seemed to get along with all their neighbors and everybody and it kind of carried over, I guess. I didn't hear anything negative about interaction between the two races.

LO: Do you think there was something about the Bainbridge community even before the war that made it cohesive, that made it easy or easier for the returning Japanese American families to come back to the island?

ZS: Well, like I say, I think they all seem to get along with their neighbors. And I never heard any real problems of anybody. Of course I, I don't know. I was still pretty young at that time.

Male voice: And did you come back to the island at the same time that the people in the camps came back?

ZS: Uh-huh, but I was still in the army at that time, so I didn't come back 'til quite a bit later. So I don't recall what the situation was at that time.

FK: You know, when you were in MIS or went to school in Fort Snelling, were there other people you knew that were with you or people from the island that you saw or anything like that?

ZS: Well, I, I know of one person. He's from Oregon, I guess, actually. But it turned out that he was a cousin to my brother-in-law. But that's about the only person I could remember. There was quite a few others from Seattle area. Tomitas, I recall was one of 'em. But then I don't recall anybody else from this area that went to Snelling at the same time.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.