<Begin Segment 12>

Incidentally, to cast a further light on the problem of what is meant by loyalty or disloyalty here, it is of interest to bear on the difference between Kibei and the Nisei generally on this question. Kibei, by and large, were more likely to have answered "no-no" than either the Issei or the Nisei. And the question is, "Why?" Well, they were, had been subjected to, they had been given Japanese training by virtue of their residence in Japan, and that was a factor. But perhaps more importantly for this issue was this fact: that the Kibei were in general a population who felt, who felt themselves not only mistreated by the white, the American population by the communities at large but were also, they felt, discriminated against by, so to speak, their own people, by their Issei parents and even more so by the Nisei colleagues or peers, who seemed to ignore them, discriminate against them in social and other relations within the... so you see, such a thing as loyalty or disloyalty can be also a very personal matter of, "What kind of discrimination did I suffer not only from my country or from a larger population but also from my friends or my peers and cohorts of like kind to which I might have been associated?"

CO: So how did you personally feel around this?

FM: My reaction was that as an American I would... well, for one thing, I was in that category of people who had, whose experiences were such that I felt myself more or less totally disconnected from Japan in this situation and totally connected with America and there was no choice for me but to answer "yes-yes" in the circumstance. And having arrived at that judgment and my wife similarly, then in the camp the issue arose as to which way I would declare myself. And this became an issue, a personal issue, because, particularly the Kibei leaders, but also a very large number of the population in Tule Lake, felt that it was, this was a circumstance in which the entire population should declare themselves against the government, answer "no-no" straight down the line as a reflection of their attitude, their protest against the evacuation. But this is something that I did not want to do and a large majority of the Nisei did not want to do and this then led to a circumstance of a very sharp break between the people who wanted to have, to respond "no-no" and those who wanted to respond "yes-yes."

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1992, 2003 Densho and Emiko Omori. All Rights Reserved.