Densho Digital Archive - Fred Oda Interview (denshovh-ofred

<Begin Segment 21>

TI: So after about a year or so, you were able to leave Poston.

FO: Yeah. They said as long as you stay east of the Rocky Mountains, then Colorado, then the government had relocation centers set up in a lot of the major cities like Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, St. Louis, major cities.

TI: And so where did you go?

FO: I went to Milwaukee.

TI: And why did you choose Milwaukee?

FO: Well, we figured we'd go there and from there we'd drift to Chicago. We never did, we just stayed there. [Laughs]

TI: And so did you go with someone else?

FO: Yeah, three of us, yeah.

TI: And so these were, who were these three? Were they from Watsonville?

FO: Yeah, same block, same block from Watsonville, yeah.

TI: And what kind of jobs did you guys get in Wisconsin, in Milwaukee?

FO: Wartime, I got job as, we got job as a recapping outfit, recapping tires. Because there was tire shortage, rubber shortage, I mean, yeah. So they were recapping old tires.

TI: And so I'm guessing, so did the four of you live together in...

FO: Yeah, three of us, yeah.

TI: Oh, three of you. Three of you. And who were the other two? Do you remember their names?

FO: Yeah, Sam Ogami, he lives in San Mateo now, and Judd Sato, he lives in Berkeley.

TI: Are they both living still?

FO: Yeah, yeah, they're both living.

TI: And so you both, all three of you are Milwaukee. How did people treat the three of you when you got there? As Japanese Americans, was there any discrimination against you because you're Japanese?

FO: Well, that's the funny part. When the Japanese on the West Coast, they said, Japanese, they congregate too much, and they don't socialize. Then when I went back east and same back there. They said, "Oh, that's German town," "Oh, that's Jewish town," "Oh, that's Italian town." You know, the Issei, they congregate because language barrier and discrimination, you know. So I figured, what's the difference when they're talking about Orientals on the West Coast.

TI: Oh, so you thought that was, like, almost unfair that they would criticize the Japanese for their, their tight-knit communities.

FO: Yeah.

TI: But then when you went back east, you saw the exact same thing.

FO: Yeah, the Europeans same thing, yeah. 'Cause of all the economic and lack of speaking the language, and, you know, discrimination.

TI: No, that's a good, good insight. But then the three of you, when you would just kind of walk around Milwaukee, did you ever...

FO: No, it wasn't bad.

TI: Now, were there very many other Japanese Americans?

FO: But still, I think we had a little problem with housing, yeah.

TI: And why do you say that? What were the problems with housing?

FO: Well, they say, "Oh, we just rented it out," and all that stuff.

TI: Okay, so they weren't direct, they didn't say, "We won't rent to you," but they would just say, "Oh, the room is already gone," or something like that. Now, were there other Japanese Americans in Milwaukee?

FO: Yeah, there were a few.

TI: So did you guys ever get together with them?

FO: Yeah, they had a JACL there.

TI: And so would you join the JACL and go to those meetings?

FO: Yeah. No, let's see... was it Japanese group? I wonder if they did call it JACL.

TI: So was it more like social types of things? What kind of things did the group do? Was it like dances?

FO: No, no.

TI: Just more meetings?

FO: Yeah. I wonder if we ever had a meeting. [Laughs]