<Begin Segment 23>

TI: I want to go back and you mentioned your brother Yosh who went into the service, the 442. Did he volunteer or was he drafted?

WM: Yeah. Lot of people volunteered that don't want to stay in camp.

TI: How did your mother and father feel about your...

WM: But can't help, he wanted to go, so...

TI: How about Tosh? Was he ever going to...

WM: He didn't go.

TI: ...military service? Now, why didn't Tosh go into the service?

WM: He was, something wrong, so they didn't pass.

TI: And did Yosh serve in Europe? Did he go with the 442 to Europe?

WM: Yeah.

TI: And so how did you keep in touch with him? Did you see letters from him?

WM: Yeah, he used to get -- and then one month, and one day, he got prisoner of war.

TI: Oh, so how did the family find out that he became a prisoner of war?

WM: They didn't say nothing. I know my dad was mad, he got killed or something. And about one year, they let us know he's a prisoner of war.

TI: So in that year time, what did the army tell the family?

WM: They don't say nothing.

TI: Did they say he was, like, missing in action?

WM: Yeah, little paper, that's all.

TI: And during that year, you mentioned that, didn't your father think that maybe he was killed?

WM: Yeah, that's what we didn't know.

TI: So that was probably difficult for your father, not knowing. After a year, when he found out that he was a prisoner of war, do you remember getting that news, or when you found out, what your father or mother you thought when you heard that?

WM: See, you say prisoner name, you didn't have to worry too much. But you know what? The United States prisoner, they stay in the farm. And all the Germans come to the Unites States and get nice place, and they didn't want to go back. They're like prisoner of war over there, no good.

TI: Okay, so the German prisoners, when they were caught, some of them were brought to the United States, you said they were, like, farm prisons.

WM: Yeah.

TI: And you said they didn't want to go back, they wanted to stay here. But your brother, his wasn't as good, you're saying.

WM: No. It was bad over there.

TI: So when did your brother get released? Do you remember when he was released?

WM: About one year or something, was in there, I think.

TI: So when he was released, were you still at Amache, or were you back in...

WM: No. He came back to Amache --

TI: Walnut Grove?

WM: '45.

TI: Okay.

WM: Left Amache '45, then we came back. Then we came back, then Filipino (and his wife), a white woman, they say, "We don't want 'Jap' around here."

<End Segment 23> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.