<Begin Segment 23>

SY: So you had a friend that was in Cleveland. Now, how did, how long had he been there? Was he, did he, was he at Manzanar?

YY: No, they were in another camp.

SY: But he had written you and said, "Why don't you come to Cleveland?"

YY: Right. So we went to Cleveland.

SY: How, what was it like going from camp to Arizona to Cleveland on a train?

YY: Well, when we got on the plane, train, there was a fellow, there was a soldier there sitting in front. He came back to us and he says, "You from Los Angeles?" And I said, "Yeah." Then he says, "Where'd you go to school?" I said, "Roosevelt." And he said, "Oh, I went to Roosevelt." [Laughs] So he, I remember that. He came back to talk to us. But the train was filled with soldiers, going someplace, I don't know.

SY: So how did you avoid the draft?

YY: Well, I had took my physical in Cleveland, and after that I never heard anything.

SY: So when you were in camp they didn't have, I mean, did you have to sign the questionnaire, the draft questionnaire?

YY: Yeah, then, so then we were able to leave to go to Cleveland.

SY: So it was right around the same time?

YY: About maybe four or five months later, the draft board sent us a thing saying come for a physical, so we went, I mean I went.

SY: In Cleveland.

YY: In Cleveland, yeah. Then I never heard anything after that, so the army must've lost my papers or something, so I'm not, I wasn't quarrelling. I didn't go and ask why. [Laughs]

SY: So you basically would've served because it was, you answered "yes-yes" to the...

YY: Yeah.

SY: And your parents, did they say anything about that when you, you never talked to them about what you were gonna do if you had to be drafted or not? [YY shakes head] They ended up, your parents left after you left for Cleveland?

YY: They came to Cleveland much later.

SY: So they ended up joining you.

YY: When the camp closed, they came out to Cleveland.

SY: So it was maybe a year later?

YY: Yeah, I think so. Then they went back, when they were able to go back to the West Coast they just left, went to the West, came back to Los Angeles. But we came back in 1947.

SY: So you were in Cleveland for a couple years.

YY: Yeah, we were there in '44, so we came back in '47.

SY: So when you were on this train, where were all the soldiers going?

YY: That, I don't know.

SY: They were just on the same train going to Cleveland? Or did they get off?

YY: That's where it ended up, but I don't know where they got off. 'Cause I think maybe they were getting, they were going to their own home or something. I don't know.

SY: And so you didn't ever feel uncomfortable because you were Japanese and then there were other people around that might have looked at you differently?

YY: Well, they didn't say anything to us, so we didn't, we didn't...

SY: You never had a bad incident where anything happened because you were Japanese.

YY: No. Maybe it's 'cause we were talking to the soldier, didn't say anything.

SY: So were you concerned about, about the fact you were going to Cleveland?

YY: No.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.