Densho Digital Archive - Mas Hashimoto Interview (denshovh-hmas-01-0024)

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TI: We were just finishing up kind of your memories of Poston. But before we leave Poston, I wanted to ask about your brothers. And before talking about what they did, let's talk a little bit about the "loyalty questionnaire." That you were younger, so it didn't really impact you, but...

MH: It didn't apply to me, yeah.

TI: But your older brothers, your mother, so talk about the "loyalty questionnaire" and how it affected your family.

MH: Well, our family was "yes-yes" from the beginning. For us it was not a discussion because of our travel to Japan in 1938. So that my mother knew that Japan was a militaristic country and not, not a flowery cherry blossom type country, it had changed so much. So my brothers -- two things, one, they were of the draft age, and they were changed from 1-A to 4-C, "enemy alien." They didn't like that idea, where, one, they weren't the enemy, and they weren't aliens. But they went "yes-yes" when so many of their friends went "yes-no," "no-yes," or "no-no." So it was a, my mother indicated that we should all go "yes-yes" no matter what. The Ide family, their father went -- my best friend's family -- they went "no-no" and ended up in Tule Lake, and then from there they went to Japan. All of 'em got back except one, who married into a Japanese family. But for us, there was a lot of fighting between pro-Japan and pro-America group. There was, "Nihon ga katsu," "Nihon makenai," you know. "We'll win, Japan won't lose." And then in our camp, Saburo Kido was beaten up, he was a JACL leader, and he was beaten up by the, the pro-Japan group, and there were people that didn't like the JACL now for putting us into camp. We didn't, JACL didn't put people into camps, it was one of those shikata ga nai kind of situations, but some people didn't understand that.

So my brothers will serve in the army, Tsuyoshi and Tadashi. And because they could read and write Japanese, they'll volunteer for the MIS, Military Intelligence Service, they go to Fort Snelling. Now, Tsuyoshi, he really liked it in Minnesota. He was well-treated by the Swedes and Germans of that area, and after the war, he was vows not to come back to California, which, to him, was a racist state. He gets married and has children. He did come back for two things: one, take the kids to Disneyland, and the other was my mother's funeral. Those are the only two times he, he came back. Now, Tadashi will serve in the military of the United States, MIS, and he had, he was pretty good with language and such. But while he's over there in Minnesota, he meets a gal, Marianne McAfee, who was just an absolutely beautiful gal. She comes into camp, he gets a furlough and she follows him into camp and wants to marry my brother. And my mother is not that excited about having her as a daughter-in-law because they can't communicate. But my brother decides not to marry because he's going off to war. But I'm going, "Who is this absolutely gorgeous girl?" My brother Tad was the best-looking in the whole family, that's not saying much. But anyway, he was the best-looking. And he was probably the smartest of the Hashimotos. Again, that's not saying a whole lot, but anyway. [Laughs] So it was, that was, that part was interesting. It caused a stir in, in Poston Camp 2.

TI: So when you say "caused a stir," what would the example be? What would some of the things...

MH: Everybody was talking about, "Who is this absolutely gorgeous girl?"

TI: And where would she stay when they came to camp? Did they stay overnight in camp?

MH: You know, I know she didn't stay with, with us, so she must have stayed with one of the teachers in the administration part of camp, which is on the other side of the fence. But that was interesting, I remember that. And she smelled good, too, I remember that, too. But anyway...

TI: That's, that's good.