Densho Digital Archive
Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community Collection
Title: Bill Takemoto Interview
Narrator: Bill Takemoto
Interviewer: Frank Kitamoto
Location: Bainbridge Island, Washington
Date: August 3, 2007
Densho ID: denshovh-tbill_2-01-0009

<Begin Segment 9>

FK: Do you remember anything about the riot in Manzanar?

BT: Yeah, I remember, but I didn't see much. I only know what I read since then. That's about the only thing I can remember. Nothing happened directly with me. I wasn't out demonstrating or anything.

FK: Do you remember it being talked about in camp and stuff?

BT: I don't remember talking about it with anybody. But I think I detected a lot of soldiers running around in their vehicles. But other than that, I don't remember anything about it.

FK: Do you remember anything about the "loyalty questionnaire"?

BT: No, I was too young to take it, and I guess my parents must have said "yes-yes" or whatever, because we didn't get, we didn't go to Tule Lake.

FK: So how much older than you was Vic?

BT: Two years.

FK: Two years older? So he would have been, he wouldn't have been seventeen yet, either, at that time, was he?

BT: He was born 1926. He didn't get called, did he? Maybe he was 4-F, medically... I don't remember what was wrong with him. He wears glasses, but I don't think that stops. But he graduated from high school in '45 down in Manzanar.

FK: Down in Manzanar?

BT: Yeah.

FK: So what do you remember about the trip home? Did you guys catch a train or catch a car, or get a car, or what happened?

BT: You know, I don't remember the ride home. We must have went home the same way. When we went down there, we went from Seattle, on a train from Seattle to Mojave, and then switched to a bus and rode the bus to Manzanar. We must have done that in reverse, but I don't remember.

FK: Do you remember the ferry trip at all?

BT: Coming back?

FK: Yeah.

BT: No. I guess I got a bad memory. [Laughs]

FK: Do you remember anybody having any bad feelings about you guys when you first came back to the island or anything like that?

BT: Say again?

FK: Giving you a hard time or anything like that when you first came back to the island?

BT: No, I didn't detect anything.

FK: Yeah. All right, thank you. Thank you very much.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.