<Begin Segment 24>

TI: So after a while, the government distributed a questionnaire, a "loyalty questionnaire."

NH: Yeah, "loyalty."

TI: And, to try to determine just from this questionnaire if people were loyal or not to the United States. Do you remember when they did that?

NH: Oh, yeah.

TI: Can you describe what happened?

NH: Well, when they did that, I must have been in, well, not quite, I must have been seventeen or something, 'cause they wanted it by eighteen, your eighteenth birthday, and was it 26 and 27 were the "yes-yes" and "no-no"?

TI: Twenty-seven and twenty-eight.

NH: Twenty-seven and twenty-eight, yeah. My mother had decided that we were gonna go to Japan, 'cause, "We're not gonna stay here, we're gonna go to Japan." And so I had, I had to sign "no-no" on that, and that was that. And the counselor called me and says, "Now, do you know what this means?" I said, "Yes, it means I'm going to Japan. And if I sign 'yes,' then it means that my family will go to Japan and I will stay here. So I'm not going to stay here by myself, so I'm going to Japan." So I joined that group that was to be sent to Tule Lake.

TI: When you say "you" were, your whole family was going to join this group.

NH: Yeah, whole family.

TI: Now, you said your mother wanted to do this. How about your father? Was he also in agreement?

NH: Well, I don't know. He, he didn't seem to care one way or the other. I don't think he was... I really don't know his feelings, but I don't think he really cared if we stayed or went to Japan, returned to Japan.

TI: And when you say your mother wanted to go back to Japan, did you ever, did she ever express why she wanted to?

NH: Just wanted to, that's all.

TI: Wanted to. How about your siblings? Did they also just feel like that was...

NH: Whatever Mom says, that's what we're going to do. That was our family anyhow, I think. Our family structure was such that whatever our parents said, well, that was what we had to do.

TI: So once a family decides this, and they go "no-no" on this, what happens? I mean, what happened to...

NH: Oh, well, then they, the time comes and they get transferred to Tule Lake, and the people that, in Tule Lake that wanted to stay in the United States who signed "yes-yes," well, they would come to Topaz and we would interchange like that. And then from Tule Lake, of course, they got on the ship to Japan.

TI: Right. The families that went "no-no" in Topaz, did others know what families, how families answered --

NH: Oh, yeah, sure.

TI: -- the questionnaire? So people knew that your family was planning to go to Tule Lake. And were there very many other families?

NH: Oh yeah, there were quite a few other families that were in that way, yeah. In fact, a very good friend of mine said, or a few of the bachelors so it didn't matter, I guess, but he went from Tule Lake and from Tule Lake he went to Japan. And when I went to Japan I saw him right away.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.