<Begin Segment 6>

JN: Can you tell us more about just how different it was in camp, in Manzanar or Minidoka, compared to Bainbridge Island? What was, what, how was it similar, how was it different?

YO: Well, I don't want to say different. Well, you'd, you're with a different type of people. I mean, a lot of, we're, in camp we're all Japanese, but when you're, when I was out I was with all Americans all the time. So I don't, I don't know different. [Laughs] At least I don't remember the difference.

JN: Did you think, you mentioned that the people in California were different and they talked different --

YO: They, the ones that I knew spoke a lot of Japanese, more than English, so that's a different, I mean, it's harder to answer back in Japanese than in English 'cause we weren't used to it.

JN: Do you remember how people felt about being in camp, the friends that you hung out with? Were they angry or was there --

YO: No, none of 'em were. Far as, far as I know, none of 'em were.

JN: Do you remember any stories about people sneaking out of camp to go fishing?

YO: I think one of my neighbors were doing that.

JN: Tell us about that.

YO: I don't know, but that's heard, but I'd never seen him do it.

JN: Do you know what the story was about, even if you didn't see them do it? What were they, what did they talk about?

YO: They'd just say that certain people went down fishing and caught some fish, and that's it. I mean, they didn't say anything else about it.

JN: Did you or your family read the Bainbridge Review?

YO: I did, yes.

JN: How did that feel, and how, what --

YO: Well, I knew --

JN: -- what was your interest -- I'm sorry.

YO: Oh, excuse me. Well, I knew more about it because the teacher would come back and tell us everything that was written on the paper, and they told us that it was just certain people that was writing those things and it wasn't everybody, the old timers. It was just the new people that was coming in trying not to let the Japanese come back. So I knew it wasn't true when, when they went over to Bainbridge High, I mean to the school, and they came back and told us what really happened.

JN: What was, what was happening?

YO: The one person was making all the trouble. They were having meetings in Bainbridge, and they came back and told us there was just, it wasn't an old timer. It was someone new that came in and wanted to keep the Japanese from coming back to the island.

JN: So the teachers, because you read about it in the paper and then the teacher came and told, came and told you that --

YO: No, it's because I was working with this teacher and she, she heard all about it when they had school meetings, I guess. That's when she told me what was really happening on the island.

JN: What kind of things did you like about reading the Review, besides knowing some of the controversy or the discussion that was going on?

YO: I just wanted to see, read the things that was happening. I mean, if someone we, we knew, but I don't remember. 'Course, my friend used to write to me, too.

JN: So you pretty much tried to stay connected, anyway, with things.

YO: Oh, yes.

JN: What about your brothers and your sisters? Were they kind of interested in what was going on, too?

YO: I don't know. I never bothered to ask, and they never used, never said anything. Well, at least I don't remember what they've said.

JN: Okay. What do you remember about filling out the "loyalty questionnaire"?

YO: I don't remember a thing. I don't remember, I don't remember filling that out.

JN: Did your, do you remember your parents filling it out or anything?

YO: No.

JN: Do you have anything else you want to say about Minidoka or Manzanar? Do you remember any little stories that might be interesting for people to hear about, like some of the things you did or an event or an incident that occurred in Manzanar or Minidoka, or just a story.

YO: No, I don't, or either it's out of my mind.

JN: It's out of your mind.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.