Densho Digital Archive - Ernest Uno Interview (denshovh-uernest-01-0011)

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EU: Okay, when I came back after the war, it comes to my mind from time to time the contrast of homecoming between the fellows from Hawaii and those of us who had gone into the service from out of the relocation centers. In my case in particular, my homecoming was somewhat of a painful one because, to begin with, we had lost our home, of course, as a result of the evacuation. My parents were in an internment camp, I think it was kind of a PW camp that was managed by, I think, Justice Department, or it could have been Immigration and Naturalization Service in Crystal City, Texas, just outside of San Antonio. When I came back from overseas and I had, I was on leave, I was able to hitchhike airline, airplane rides on air force planes from O'Hare -- at that time it was just O'Hare Airport outside of Chicago -- to Dallas, Texas, and from Dallas I wrote in the belly of a B-29 bomber to an airfield outside of San Antonio. In fact, when we got to San Antonio, some of the other GIs who had hitchhiked with me on that plane said, "Hey, why don't you stick on, buddy? We're going to Tokyo. You can have a free ride to Tokyo." I said, "Yeah, but how do I know when we get back?" I said, "Well, you know, they're shuttling these things, they're bringing the old B-29s back, you can get a ride back home." I said, "No, I've got a limited time, so thanks." And I left the plane.

And from San Antonio, I took a bus ride down to Crystal City. I had to ride ahead in order to get approval to visit my family in Crystal City. That was the first strange thing about homecoming, because I had to get approval to see my family. Second, when I got to Crystal City I had to call the camp administration, and they had to assign a time when I could come out to camp, and according to their rule, sign in at the visitors center. I would meet my family in a visitor's cottage, and would have an hour to visit. I had hopes of possibly going into the camp, visiting their living quarters, because I was told that Mom had, was able to cook, and she was all prepared to put together a real nice dinner for me. We could relax and just sit around the dinner table kind of thing.

But no, instead, I remember riding up to camp in a taxi and getting out of the car. [Cries] Boy, it's painful. I still have visions of my folks out there, away from where the taxi had driven up. And I heard their voices greeting me. And I went up to the fence, touched their hands. My mother said, "Okaeri." She said, "I knew you'd come home." I asked her, well, how did she know I was coming home? And she said, "I prayed."

After that it was just a formality of going in, signing in, then having to go in the visitor's cottage and sit at a couch, but then armed guards standing behind us with a pistol on the side. You know, just standing and overseeing us as we had this family reunion. We had one hour. I don't know. You know, I've thought about that time and again, written about it, it's never really bothered me too much other than the fact, if there was a reason for my ever to be bitter, I guess this could have been one the reasons. And yet, darn it, forever the loyal American. This is something we had to take, part of the shit we always take. That was the fact of life we had to live with. But it was enough, though to see that both my parents were well.

I like to... well, I don't relate this to many people, but I think for the sake of the record, you might appreciate. There were ten of us, and, you know, when a woman bears children, she has to give up something. One of the things, as I understand, women lose, are their teeth, because of calcium. My mother had to lose almost all of her teeth. She might have had one, as I recall, maybe one or two teeth in her mouth when I had last seen her in Colorado, before my last, before we shipped out. When I saw her in Crystal City, praise the lord, she had a full mouth of teeth. The government had put dentures in her mouth. And you know, those teeth did her well even up to her dying day, and she looked beautiful. You look at any pictures of her, she has a nice smile. Always, she always hid her mouth, she was always, that was the one thing she was embarrassed about. As a youngster growing up, I always remember, with pain, how embarrassed we were that my mother didn't have a full mouth full of teeth. This is the one thing she had. And painful as homecoming was there in Crystal City, I was happy that she was able to smile and smile beautifully. That's my story of homecoming.