<Begin Segment 15>

CO: So, could you tell us something about the segregation policy?

FM: Yes. The, subsequent to the registration, the WRA and other groups came to the conclusion that a separation had to be made between, of those who were "yes-yes" respondents from those who were "no-nos." I think this kind of attitude had developed very early in the centers. For example, at Poston, as you know, there was this conflict that occurred between the so-called agitators and radicals and on the other side the JACL-ers and those who were for more accommodative action policy towards the administration. And some of the people, not only was there the conflict, but some of the people, particularly on the accommodative end, got beaten up and, or were seriously threatened. And the same thing happened at Manzanar at the time of the Manzanar riot. In short, there arose a good deal of feeling, both on the part of the WRA administration, as well as among JACL leaders that the only way to deal with the situation of radicals was to segregate them, put them in a separate camp, so they would not create problems for those who did not want to behave as these radicals did. Incidentally, throughout this discussion, we should think of "agitators" and "radicals" and so on in quotes because it's a very complicated problem to define these categories. In any event, one could foresee from this kind of background, that a policy would eventually emerge that called for the separation, segregation, of those who were the so-called "radicals" -- "troublemakers" was another term that was used -- from the rest of the population. And therefore, a segregation policy came into being and it was decided that Tule Lake, which had the largest percentage of those who had responded "no-no," should be made the segregation center, established as that, and that those who were "no-no" respondents in the other centers should also be moved to Tule Lake so that there would then be a single center of those who were "no-no" respondents. And this then came to be known as the segregation center.

CO: But you had left by then.

FM: I had left by then because it seemed to me, and to the study, apparent that we were no longer functional as researchers in the relocation center.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 1992, 2003 Densho and Emiko Omori. All Rights Reserved.