Densho Digital Archive - Joe Kino Interview

<Begin Segment 1>

HM: I guess I want you to introduce yourself and tell us a little about your family, who you are.

JK: Oh, I will answer whatever I can, but you know, like I told you before interviewing, why, I just came back from Japan and was on the island for only four years from 1938 to 1942 when we evacuated.

HM: I see. Now, what is your name and who are your parents and did you have any siblings?

JK: My name is Hideo Kino, but my hired people at that time couldn't pronounce my name so they called, start calling me Joe. That's how I got the Joe Hideo Kino in there.

HM: Then your parents, were they leasing the land or did you own it, or what was it with your farm land?

JK: Oh, you mean farming?

HM: Yes.

JK: Well, we owned that farm, you know, that place we were farming, but during the war, why, we just can't keep up with the taxes, so I think we lost by not paying the taxes for the place. And the people that we had hired, they were supposed to take care of it when we were gone, but I don't know, we didn't hear anything about it, and my dad was in the New Mexico at that time. And well, we can't, at that time, we can't converse with those people that many times, you know, because I'm not up to my English, like I am now, but during the four years that I was on Bainbridge Island, I went to school and after that, after school, I come home and do the farm work.

HM: Did you go to Bainbridge High School then?

JK: I went to Pleasant Beach Elementary School. And then 1944 -- no, not 1944, but 1940, I was in high school and freshman year, and I remember that when we were going high school at freshman time, myself and Akio Suyematsu on the lunchtime, we used to walk around the high school, you know, at the high school, and I met a lot of people that way.

HM: I see, so you had just returned from Japan then around your freshman year?

JK: Uh-huh, well you see I came back in 1938, spring of 1938, and I stayed in the immigration department for about four days before they let me go out because they have to check everything, you know, what kind of disease I have or what I brought from Japan and things like that.

<Begin Segment 2>

HM: Why did you go to Japan in the first place?

JK: Well, I was sent to Japan to educate, mostly, and then at the time, my mother was taking us boys home to Japan, and we have three of us, myself, and one was Toshiaki, and the other was Ben, that's Tsutomu. And then myself and Ben is the one that came back. And we left Toshiaki at Japan because Grandmother was alone and there was nobody to take care of it, so we left him in Japan to take care the grandmother. But then when the war broke out I think he got drafted in the army and he was sent to Manchuria. And just before, well, during the wartime, he was in Manchuria. And then when the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, at the time, I understand that the Russian start, you know, fighting with the Japanese. They had, I heard that they had some kind of agreement with Japan not to invade each other. So they were... well, let's see. When the U.S. bombed Hiroshima with the atomic bomb, at that time, Russians started to invade Manchuria. That's when my brother got killed. And I don't know after that, but he was cremated and brought over to Japan, and they had a funeral and everything, you know, but I don't recall any story on that part.

[Interruption]

HM: Now what part of Japan were you sent to? Where was your grandmother?

JK: Well, it was the northern part of Japan, I mean, prefecture Wakayama. And I was brought up by my mother side grandparents and their family, and the other two boys, Ben and Toshiaki, was with the father's side. So we, you know, we three brothers in the same village, but they were with the other grandma and I was with the other grandparents.

HM: Now who was then left at home on Bainbridge Island? What other brothers and sisters did you have on Bainbridge?

JK: What do you mean?

HM: Who else was in your family that did not go to Japan and they were still left on Bainbridge?

JK: Oh, well, if we don't have to go to Japan, I don't exactly know why they sent me to Japan but I'm pretty sure their mind was to educate the Japanese way. 'Cause I must have been quite a kid when I was little. [Laughs] don't stay still and, you know, running around in Seattle, things like that I was doing, I think.

HM: Who are your brothers and sisters that were still on Bainbridge?

JK: You mean at that time?

HM: Yes.

JK: Well, my two sisters, only one brother Shoji, and two sisters Setsuko and Reiko.

HM: You had another sister?

JK: Yeah, I had another sister but she was at the hospital all the time and she had breathing problems. So we took her to a hospital in Enumclaw and during the wartime, she passed away.

HM: So she did not evacuate with you because she was in the hospital?

JK: No, no. Yeah, she was in the hospital in Enumclaw for, during the wartime, too, but she passed away during the wartime, I think. I don't know exactly what year, but I presume that she passed away somewhere about 1944 or late '43. That's all I know of her. I knew she had the little breathing problem so, she can't walk too long, long ways, and she had to stop and get her breathing back, and then we'd start walking again, but until then we had quite a time with her.

HM: Now, do you remember much about the time that you did spend on the island, what your family was doing and how they survived?

JK: Yeah, I knew, you know, quite a few people during that four years that I was on the island, but only one that I was real close was Akio Suyematsu and Nob Koura and Art Koura and there was a boy named Hayashi. They were, I would say it's a neighbor because they only lived across the street and they were farming over there too. So, during the springtime, we had some kind of gathering to help each farmer to plant the strawberries, and at that time I knew quite a bit of people, but I can't remember their names anymore. My mind is really bad. [Laughs]

HM: No it isn't. [Laughs]

<Begin Segment 3>

HM: Well, could you think back to when you heard of the news that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. Do you remember that at all?

JK: Oh, you mean at Pearl Harbor?

HM: Yes.

JK: Oh, well, all I know is what they said on the news.

HM: What were you doing?

JK: Well, when we heard that, we were kind of flabbergasted, because we didn't know exactly what their plan was. But a little later, why, they said that Japan bombed United States, not United States but Pearl Harbor, and the next day or two, the United States declared war on Japan. That's how Japanese and American got into war.

HM: Did you have any deep personal feelings just, you know, coming back from Japan?

JK: Well it's kind of hard to leave Japan, because you know I have all the friends there, see. And I didn't know anybody over here, except my parents, and I barely remember my parents at all. So it's kind of hard for me at age of seventeen, eighteen, hard to leave Japan because we had to leave all the friends with, you know, separate from the friends and the family that brought me up.

HM: That would be hard. What went on in your household, do you remember, when you heard that your family, and how did your parents handle finding out that you had to leave the island?

JK: Well the only thing I remember was the FBI of some people that came to my house and took my dad away, see. Well, they were talking to Dad but I don't know what they were talking about because I wasn't that much of an English speaker at the time, but I remember that they took my dad to I think the Immigration Department first, and from there he was sent to Montana and Texas and New Mexico and then he stayed in New Mexico during the war until the war ends. He came back in 1944, I think that's spring of 1944, and he wasn't in any camp for that long either, one year, I think.

<Begin Segment 4>

HM: I always have to admire your parents because even though he went through all that, I remember his singing and just being a very upbeat person. And so did he talk at all about his ordeal or his, or the things that he went through when he was...

JK: No, we didn't talk too much about that during the war or before we left the island. Well, Mother was kind of sad, but... she only had three small children at the evacuation time, and I wasn't too much of a help for her, but we somehow survived that and went to... what is it, Manzanar, and a year later, we moved up to Hunt, Idaho. They called it Minidoka. The fact that we moved up was we couldn't, well, I wouldn't say we got along, but the younger people, like my age, eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old, they kind of hard to get along with the California people, especially Terminal Island people. So I think the elderly in Manzanar from Bainbridge Island, they request the War Department to move us to Hunt, Idaho. Because they had the one block saved. Not saved, but left over, so we came up to Hunt, Idaho, Minidoka camp. And then we were given Block 44, and all the Bainbridge Islander were in Block 44.

HM: What was your... were you old enough to have to have the answer the "no-no" "yes-yes" questions when the men were required to answer those questions?

JK: What kind of question?

HM: About your loyalty to the United States. There were two questions, and some men would answer, "no" and "no" to these particular questions, so they were known as the "no-no" boys.

JK: When we were in Manzanar, there was a question between, "Are you loyal to the United States," and, "are you willing to serve in the military?" But I just answered "yes" and "no." Because I can't leave my mother alone, because Father wasn't there to take care. Well, when you're in the camp, you don't have to take care of nobody. The government took care of us, but still, there's nobody to rely on at that time. So I wasn't at home too long, but I was in Twin Falls working for Hoop Construction to repair the highways. Hoop Construction, they get a contract from the state government to go around and fix the state highways and other U.S. highways and things like that.

HM: So this was before your mother and your younger brother and sisters were out of camp, you left before them? Did you leave camp before the rest of your family?

JK: Well, we didn't have too much problems going to Manzanar because that's where everybody else is going. So I kind of remember that we got there in California in April Fool's Day or something like that. That's about the main thing that I remember. And then we got on the bus at the L.A. station and went to Manzanar.

<Begin Segment 5>

HM: Do you remember anything about the process of your leaving your home and getting down to the ferry and then from the ferry to the trains? Do you remember anything about that whole trip and what were you thinking?

JK: Well, during the trip, we can't see anything because we got, they told us to leave the blind down, and we can't look outside or anything else. So everything was dark and we only had a lamp from railroad. Until we arrive in L.A., Los Angeles train station, we can't see anything. We couldn't see anything because the blind was down all the way from Seattle to California. And then after we got to L.A., then get off the train and get on the bus, went to camp Manzanar. And when we went to Manzanar, why, our Block 3 wasn't ready so we had to make our own beds and go get our own army cot, set up everything else.

HM: What was your impression of the camp, of Manzanar?

JK: What was that?

HM: What did you think of camp?

JK: Oh, when I went to Manzanar? Well, there isn't too much thing to say or think, it's all desert and there's Manzanar camp buildings here and there. And it's just a bare place. Hot, and every time the wind blows then they it blew the sand with, you know. So I remember that one day, when we were in Manzanar, they opened up the camp so we could go out behind the camp. Not front of the camp, but behind the camp which is you're going toward that mountain there. There was a high mountain there. There was a creek there, and there was big trout swimming in the creek, but nobody had equipment to fish those. And then they told us to watch out for rattlesnake. So then we have to kind of be careful where we're stepping because there's a lot of rocks and things on the desert.

HM: Were you still going to school at that time? Did you go to school in Manzanar itself?

JK: Go where?

HM: Did you go to school in Manzanar?

JK: Oh, school?

HM: Or had you already graduated?

JK: Well, no, I hadn't graduated yet, but I tried to go to school, but Manzanar people, they were kind of against the U.S. that put us into the camp. And at the school, the schoolkids is always speaking Japanese instead of English. So I thought, oh, I'm not going to learn anything from them, so I quit school. And then I start working for the, we went out to work outside the camp.

<Begin Segment 6>

MH: What kind of work did you do outside the camp?

JK: Well, mostly construction. I was driving the dump truck for Hoop Construction to haul all the dirt to fill up the bump or something like that. So I just, well, sometimes we have to work late. I don't know, sometimes I get kind of sleepy. But we all survived that ordeal. The big incident that I remember in California was that big riot in that camp. At that time, I think everybody knows that the riot in the Manzanar camp, that a couple people got killed. And I would say at that time I was working in the transportation department, and we were afraid that when the people start coming at that time, why, they're gonna start looking for the key to the pickup and the cars to drive everybody around. So we, I noticed that we hid all the keys away from where we usually keep, and we only had one car key for our own driving. And the rest of 'em, why, we just locked up somewhere else, I don't know why, but the foreman's kind of worried about, something happens, then everybody gonna rush for the transportation to get out of there. So we thought that there might be better things to do and the foreman just put the key under the lock except the one that we have to use. I remember we drove one or two people to hospital at that time, and then one people was pretty bad and I don't remember his name, but he died on the way to the hospital. It was kind of sad things but happened that way. Well, in Manzanar, for a riot, I don't know how that things happen, but people, all the people went to that front gate to protest something. And then I remember that the big wind came up, and when the wind came up, I thought sandstorm started. That's why I don't know, the soldiers thought that we're doing something, so they start shooting instead of asking questions. That's, well, then everybody else was scattered around, but I wasn't there, so I don't know exactly what really happened. But afterwards, why people were talking, when the sandstorm started, then... all you need together like this, and one people do something, and then everybody follows it. I don't know how many people, soldiers shoot at us, but they stopped shooting right away. When they started shooting, the people in the front line got shot. So they rushed over to transportation department and told us that some people got shot. So we went to pick 'em up, take 'em to the hospital. We only had one car, so I remember we put two people in the car and then just rushed to the hospital.

HM: That's a sad time.

JK: I know that was a sad occurrence, but just can't help it, I guess.

HM: So did you have to have special permission to work with the transportation department or was that part of the camp setup?

JK: That was a part of our camp work. I remember we took some truck up to Lone Pine station to transport some people from, California people from that station to camp, and then later on, their freight came in and we have go over there to pick up their belongings then bring it into the camp. That's the only time we went out of the camp. Of course, it's, guard's with you so you can't go anywhere else. [Laughs]

HM: Now, what do you remember about Minidoka in Idaho?

JK: Well, when we got to Minidoka, I was in camp just a few months, I think. And then there was a... they said there was a job outside of camp in Twin Falls, so I think half a dozen of us applied for the job. Then we got the job, so we went out, we went out of camp and worked in the Twin Falls area. That's when I was working for Hoop Construction in Twin Falls. I don't know whether they have a Hoop Construction in Twin Falls right now or not, but 1943, '44, those days, that was a pretty good sized construction company.

HM: Were there many people that you knew that worked outside of camp around your age? What did the people your age do?

JK: Well, I don't know what other people did, but quite a few people went out, young people that went out to farm, to help the farm harvest their crop. After Hoop Construction job, that fall, we went to Pocatello to pick spuds and harvest beets and things like that during the harvest time.

<Begin Segment 7>

HM: You left camp before the rest of your family, and where did you go? Not on these jobs, but how did you get to Payette?

JK: You mean after the Minidoka camp?

HM: Uh-huh.

JK: Well, it's when my dad came back in 1944, '44, I think. I went out to work outside of the camp because they got all of us west of Cascade. So I went Chicago to get a job over there, and then I worked in a cab company, that was the Yellow Cab company. I went to Chicago to get a mechanic's job, and we got, Yellow Cab company hired us to do the mechanic work in their garage. And I worked with the colored people. Well, those days, they know how it was for the colored people. They were real nice people. But those days, why, it was a little different. Now, there's no discrimination for different color or different hair, but those days, there was discrimination. So I worked with... well, a lot of colored people working in that garage, too, so I used to work with the colored people, and they were really helpful and courteous. I learned quite a bit from those people. Then I came back, after that I came back to camp again, and we stayed there about a couple of months before we got out of there with the family. And then 1945, we came to Ontario to work on the farm.

HM: Did you work for someone on the farm at that time or was it your own farm?

JK: Yeah, before we evacuated to Ontario, I was working one spring and fall, I worked for a farmer in the Ontario area. So we all, they didn't help, so we all came out to Ontario.

HM: And what brought the rest of your family back into the Pacific Northwest area, to Seattle?

JK: Well, you know, after the war, then we don't have no place to go, because the county took our properties. I think they sold it to some people. But that's why we're doing, helping some farmers in the Ontario area.

<Begin Segment 8>

HM: Have you heard of our memorial project and what we're doing here?

JK: What kind of memorial?

HM: The Nidoto Nai Yoni, the project we're having in Eagledale where we're having a memorial park.

JK: I probably heard of it, but I don't exactly know what that was.

HM: This is a project to keep people, let people know what happened to the Japanese during the evacuation and about the Japanese history on the island. And so you're a part of it right now, because we'll have your interview in the archives. If you were to -- or anyone, your grandchildren or people from all over the United States came to this memorial, what would you like them to learn?

JK: Well, I don't know. I never thought of that.

HM: What do you think would be important to put into this project, to include in it?

JK: Well, I think when they have all the people get together, JACL probably have a lot of input on that. So I think everybody will be pleased that JACL's getting everybody together.

HM: Okay. Do you have any more thoughts about this whole process and the whole way that the United States government mandated that the Japanese go?

JK: No, I don't have any problem with that. Anywhere we go, we're treated like a human being, not like derrogarated language or anything like that. When we moved to Ontario area, there's one town that said that, "You're not allowed," or something like that, like a restaurant that they're not going to serve us or anything, but town of Ontario and Payette, they were very nice to us those days right after the war when the people came to Ontario, we worked for, do some farmwork. And then a lot of people established themselves in the Ontario area, but they're doing real well.

<Begin Segment 9>

HM: What is the background of your parents, your mother and father? Why did they leave Japan and come to the United States?

JK: Well, my father came here, but the main thing was to make enough money to go back to Japan. But a lot of people, they make that, and they stayed in the United States here, and that's how all the Nisei got involved in that evacuation and everything. And California people, Manzanar people, they were, well, they didn't like to evacuate. And they talked about U.S. government, what are they doing, you know, putting us into the camp because we're citizens. But to the country, I don't know what it was, but they didn't consider Nisei as American citizens. So like some people used to say that "Jap is a Jap." You don't hear that words anymore, nowadays, but those days, they usually hate the Japanese people or whoever connected to the Japanese people. That's why a lot of people from camp, lot of people volunteered into the army. And the other people said, I think a lot of people answered "yes" and "no" because they don't exactly know what's going to happen. I answered "yes" and "no" because my dad wasn't home, so nobody to take care of the family at that time. But after my dad come home, it was too late to volunteer or anything because the war is already over. They didn't draft me or anything.

[Interruption]

HM: I guess I could go back to that, the person who was put in charge of your land, of your Bainbridge Island piece of land, was he supposed to keep in touch with you, or was it because your dad was taken away that things got all mixed up?

JK: Yeah, he was, but when we evacuated, then the people that were working for us, we asked them to keep everything together. But after we moved to Manzanar, we didn't hear anything from them, so we didn't exactly know what was happening in Bainbridge Island.

HM: So the taxes were due and they lapsed, and then so it was a foreclosure.

JK: Uh-huh. So evidently, the tax mail probably went there, but I don't think they even looked back to see whether they have to pay a tax, so they just let it go. I don't know how long they were there after we moved out, but Manzanar, we didn't hear anything from them.

HM: From all of this experience, what, what do you think... what impact did it have on your life and how you look at things?

JK: Well, thinking back on the whole thing, for myself, I was kind of disappointed because I couldn't get enough education in United States. When I came back, my thought was to go to school and get a degree in engineering. But when the war started, that plan was all gone. Couldn't do anything with... I had to get out of there, get out of the Bainbridge Island or we couldn't go to school or anything. So that's the only regret that I have right now, today. Anything else? Well, is there even anything else. I don't know too much about before the war. The only correction on that, when I was living on Bainbridge Island.

HM: Just a story of the whole community, just each one, each family seems to have a different story.

JK: Well, I think I have a different prospect between the people that lived in the island all their lives, and I come back from Japan to live on the island for only four years, I certainly have a different kind of opinion, I guess.

HM: How old were you when you went to Japan to be educated? When your parents sent you to Japan, how old were you?

JK: I was only eight years old when I went to Japan. And then after ten years I came back, 1938. It was 1928 that my mother took us boys to Japan. And then I came back in 1938, so during that time, I never used English word at all, so I forgot all the English that I learned up to eight years old. And up to eight years old, you don't learn too much, so you forget right away if you don't use it.

HM: I guess I should ask you what the names of your parents were also. You told us the names of your siblings, but not of your parents.

JK: Well, my dad's name was Kusunosuke Kino, and my mother was, her maiden name was Sono Itani, but after married to my dad, it was Sono Kino.