<Begin Segment 5>

CO: So tell us about that renunciation program.

HK: Yeah, after the registration, we didn't know what was going to happen to us and we want to clarify our situation, and they would tell us, "Why don't you sign up for repatriation?" And I don't remember that I ever signed that because I didn't want to go to Japan. And, but as a family we might have signed it. But then we heard of people wanting to renounce their citizenship, and they would send requests. And they said, well, maybe we should write letters and send for that form, and so forth. And it was again, a thing done as a group. If so-and-so was doing it, so you'd do it. And again, my mother wanted us all to be together, and act together and so... and my brother was very adamant about making our decision clear. If we're going to go to Japan, or if we're on Japan's side, well, we should, you know, declare that. And I was gonna let the whole thing ride, but then, the... anyway, everyone else around us were doing it and so we went through that and we had a hearing. We could have changed our minds, but we were too determined and didn't. I read a report of the hearing and the officer wrote down saying he's very determined not to go to Japan but he's very hurt by the kind of treatment that he got as a citizen, and as a protest he has taken this course and he's a very Americanized young man who speaks excellent English, etcetera. And that's about all it said. I thought there'd be a whole lot more, but apparently it was a short interview. And that's it. And we were, we had kind of coached before we went to the hearing that we would be asked certain questions and it's better not to say too much. [Laughs] And so we were just anxious to get it over with and so there was no way of changing our minds. We had all decided as a family. Thinking back, I thought that was a very bad move because we were fooled again, I think, by the government and put into that kind of situation where, to think that the citizenship didn't have any meaning, you know. And later on you realize that it really meant a lot, and you threw away a lot, yeah.

EO: Has it affected you?

HK: Oh yeah, it has. It has. Well, you know, we were so close to being deported, and then we had the attorneys from San Francisco come and visit us and they realized what was happening, especially this Wayne, Wayne Collins. He decided, well, he would stop this deportation, and he did. And according to what he said, he saved us. And I... but we didn't know that we were going to be sent, that it was so close. But, and then we decided that we would organize and hire him because he offered his services and so we, we organized and we collected some money and we hired him. And it took many, many years. And it wasn't until about 19-, mid-1950 that I finally recovered it. But then, until then, you know, I was going to school, and not knowing what was going to take place even if I graduated, so I kind of messed around in school, waiting, biding my time, actually. And UC was very good about this, that they allowed us to go to school, and pretend that we were citizens. We, of course, would say we are citizens, and so we didn't have to pay out-of-state fee. And so I hung around school longer than I would have, really. [Laughs] And then it wasn't until about 1955, I think, that we finally... but, yeah, it... yeah, it changed the course of my life. I wanted to be, work in the State Department, which is strange. [Laughs] But I had some facility for Nihongo, Japanese, and thinking back, I could have volunteered for the language school and you know, been very useful that way, but... 'cause I had a good background at that time, I didn't have to learn it, as many Nisei did. But then I also, early, before the registration, I was interested in going on to school, so I applied at the student relocation. They were the first to leave camp. But they said that they preferred people who were already in college, or... and that you had to have a thousand dollars. [Laughs] That was the thing that turned me off, and I couldn't, so I didn't pursue that after that. And then the registration came and then the whole thing happened.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1992, 2003 Densho and Emiko Omori. All Rights Reserved.