Densho Digital Archive - Roy Doi Interview (denshovh-droy-01-0005)

<Begin Segment 5>

RD: So what else did you do when you were there?

Roy D.: Okay. One other thing I remember very much, and I've written a little short story about it, but nobody wants to print it. One morning a group of us decided to go on a rabbit hunt. And there was one older person, he was about fourteen, I guess, he was sort of very bossy and he said, "Okay, we're going on a rabbit hunt." So about nine of us I remember went out, went a little bit north of Block 9. And we made a line, and he says, "We're gonna all go very quietly and try and corral the rabbit out there." But as soon as we saw a rabbit, we all ran, and we chased the rabbit until we got to the fence of the camp. And the rabbit just sort of looked back at us and then he just snuck right underneath the fence. And we were all sort of frustrated because the barbed wire fence was there. And so as we stood there, a very interesting thing happened. It was right near the edge of the camp, and the road was there, and a little car came up. It was with a rumble seat and there were two white boys in the front and one boy in the rumble seat in the back. And they stopped and they started yelling, "Oh, you dumb Japs," and everything. And then they started throwing rocks at us. And we were very... I can't understand why, but we just stood next to the fence, and they started pelting us with rocks. And we didn't fight back or anything. Ordinarily you would think we would have gotten mad and thrown rocks back at 'em. But no, we just stood there, and naturally we didn't want to get hit, so we started walking back from the fence and finally they just drove off again. But in my story that I wrote -- I remember the morning was very nice, sunny, and the sky was blue. And as they started pelting us, it got real cloudy. You know how in Wyoming the clouds would suddenly come up. Well, we walked back in the rain back to the barracks from the fence. So it was sort of a poignant story. And I've often wondered why we were so reluctant to fight back at that time.

RD: Well, I would think that you would think, just even as little boys, that you've already been put in jail.

Roy D.: Yeah. Well, we must have felt that... I don't know why we were so reluctant to even shout back or yell back anything. But I remembered at that point we were just so silent, and we walked back.

RD: You know, you can now publish short stories on your own on Kindle.

Roy D.: Yeah, maybe I should try writing up the... I've written up the story several times.

RD: Send it to us, we know how to get it on Amazon.

Roy D.: Oh.

RD: Well, no, people can download it to their Kindles, so you don't have to go through a publisher anymore. So you could create your, Garrett's got Cowboy series, I have a bunch of books, and it's not that hard anymore. Because I think publishers the way they are now are going to go away. I think it's all going to change. I would love to read it.