<Begin Segment 33>

HU: So, after that Best had somebody in Block 7, you know that's a doctor's block. All the doctors live nearby the administration entrance there, so he had somebody watching us. You know, Joe Kurihara and me and so on, you know. So he got all the information, whatever they are. And Tule Lake, my wife came in finally the day before the new year, take about twenty-four days before they bring her in, you know. They bring in with the station wagon with two other families. And finally they came in and she brought in the radio so it's small radio, but I convert to the shortwave and I listen. And I know Japan gonna lose the, already in Moab. And Moab I listened all the way through, even one day, somebody, I was in the playground, that was Sunday, they turned it on loud and naval march song is going on and you could hear it outside. Somebody turned on my radio while I was out, see. So they told me that you've got to give up those radios, cut them off, the shortwaves. "Okay," I said. Then one of the internal security, that's an old man, he's a Mormon, he's a very nice, quiet old man, we get along fine. "Harry, you're a maintenance, so you got out all the time around the camp, so you come over my place and you want to listen to shortwave, go ahead and listen. I'll let you come into my home, that's free anytime you want to come in, you come in. So I sold to him cheap so I could go his home and listen and I raised honeydew melon and some other stuff in his yard, because other place nothing grow. Because the ground is so packed up and alkali, see, his place been work out a long time ago, they're very good. So I go out to work and stop over and listen and take care of the garden a little bit. [Laughs] And me and a couple of other kids, they're maintenance; an easy job.

And I went all the way through, even Tule Lake I listened to the shortwave and Best know that; he told me that. "Harry, I know you listen to shortwave but you don't do any activity in the politics so I forget everything that you've done." And he's the one who told me to, "Change your mind and go to Japan. Not for yourself, but for the kids," he said. "Your kids growing up in here, and it's making very difficult to go back to Japan." And Joe Kurihara, it's 1945, I think, November... I forgot the date, but he's the first one to go back to Japan. With fifty bachelors, fifty Issei, you know, they're all bachelors. He took fifty of them together and take 'em to Japan. I think he went to the... I don't know. Portland or Seattle? I don't know. They went back to Japan. And months later, Best gave me information on how hard in Japan is. And Joe had a lot of money because he's a bachelor and he was a navigator; he saved a lot of money. I noticed that one time he got those tuna [inaudible] and a Portuguese owner sent him $800 check. So that's a lot of money for those days. And he had a lot of money and carry him, and every time he go to take a shower or something, he said, "Hold for me," and I hold his wallet and I didn't open but I know he has lots of money. And in Tule Lake he bought lot of seeds; he knows in Japan, is materials scarce, so he took quite a bit of material. And between the ship, and they had a camp someplace, a temporary camp for the people, returnees, in Japan. And there, between there they stole 'em all. He lost 'em all. And that's what the Best gave me a report months later: "Look, Harry, this is the way Japan is today; don't go," he told me. And yet I don't say yes to him.

Then next thing, you know the Hoshidan, those... group that demonstrate, they went back. This time, the husband in a concentration camp, but the wife and children in Tule Lake. So they get together and I think the ship went out from Portland or someplace. They went back. About, more than a month later, he got the information. He called me in the office, "Come here, Harry. I show you what they are." Kids get one bowl of rice and inside is a pickle, umeboshi. And that's all they get; and the children is miserable. You don't want to put your children in same condition so you'd better change your mind." So, finally I started thinking maybe that condition, if I go in there, I have to share the meager food for the families and make it worse. And it's hard for the children so I change my mind finally. But Best was pretty nice for me later. You notice Wayne Collins asked Best to delay close the Tule Lake camp, so he agreed with him. Then for the defend those renouncee, Best donate $300. And same thing he asked to the Mike Masaoka in Salt Lake City. You know what he said? I've seen the newspaper. He said, "Send all those disloyal bastards to Japan. Ship out." That's quite a difference.

EO: Well, why do you think Raymond Best was so nice to you?

HU: He had a difficult time with the Hoshidan. Lot of difficult time. But I know those Wakayama or another leader there from L.A., all those people, I know 'em. And I don't agree with what they're doing. They want to go to Japan, why they demonstrate? They don't have to. If time comes, they could go. So I didn't like that. Not only that, if they don't join with you, them, they're going to discriminate against. Sometime the people against their demonstration, they hang the chicken bone or something and right on the table they sit. And that isn't so nice, you know, doing that. All the people got a reason to go in Tule Lake. So I don't agree with that kind of message, you know. Like Yosh Uchida, he is a successful businessman. His father and older brother and younger brother in here, they all was in Tule Lake. Not Yosh Uchida. But they was very, very discriminate against the other. [Interruption] Yeah, I worked honestly, and I worked hard. But I get, I had about thirteen or fourteen workers under me in maintenance in Tule Lake, you know. I went outside, I went all around. I repaired "Abalone Hill," there's a water tank there, too. All that, I repaired those things, you know.

<End Segment 33> - Copyright © 1994, 2003 Densho and Emiko Omori. All Rights Reserved.