Densho Digital Archive - Ben Kuroki - Shige Kuroki Interview (denshovh-kben

<Begin Segment 11>

FA: Washington ordered you to... what orders did you receive from Washington?

BK: Well, of course, I never did see the orders. They just came to my squadron and they told me, "Kuroki, you gotta go so and so and so and so." And so I did.

FA: And what did they tell you? They told you to go to where?

BK: Heart Mountain, that I was going to Heart Mountain and Minidoka and Topaz. And I think that there's been some misunderstandings about that. But they never gave me any, didn't tell me or give me any instructions. They just told me to go there. And of course, I guess the directors or the people there probably had a general idea of what they wanted me to do. But that was some of the misunderstandings I know that over the years, but the JACL had nothing to do with me. They didn't tell me what to do or any of the other groups. I was just told to go there and so I just went to the camps and whatever they had on their agenda, I did.

FA: So you went, you went first to Wyoming, and tell me, then, what was your reaction when you approached Heart Mountain?

BK: Well, of course, I was really quite shocked when I approached Heart Mountain and came up to the, to the gate and saw these armed guards and they were all wearing the same uniform I was wearing. And inside, behind the barbed wire, were all these, my own people, so to speak. Most of them, as you know, they were American citizens. It was really quite a shock. I never did get over that.

FA: Did you look at them as your own people? I know that you looked at Nebraskans as your own people, too.

BK: Well, I looked at 'em as my own people as far as nationality. I mean, being of the same Japanese ancestry.

FA: We have this wonderful home movie, I don't know if you've seen this. Sakauye, Eiichi Sakauye in San Jose took this home movie of you speaking to the rally. And in fact, my father, my father gave me, when I told him I was coming here, he gave me a little -- here.

[Interruption]

FA: My father gave me this photograph that he had saved all these years.

BK: [Laughs] I'll be darned.

FA: Do you remember speaking to the internees at Heart Mountain?

BK: Well, just a little. I was told, I was asked to speak, I guess, to this Fair Play Committee group. And I'd been warned that they were quite militant and that they were concerned for my safety so they were going to put on some extra guards. I remember talking to them... I guess I would say that everything was okay except at one time I made the statement that if they thought Japan was going to win the war, they're crazy. I said that they were going to get bombed off the map. And I heard some hissing and booing at that time. And that was probably the most, well, the only real thing that stood out in my memory of what happened.

FA: How many do you recall being in the room when you spoke?

BK: Oh, just guessing, would probably would say about seventy-five, maybe.

FA: What did you say to the group, besides that statement about Japan? Do you recall what you said to...

BK: Must not have been very important because I don't remember what I said now. It's been so many years ago, but I must have told them about some of my bombing missions and some of my experiences. That's all I can remember.

FA: Looking back, probably not the most tactful thing to say to a group of boys who were planning to resist induction.

BK: [Laughs] Well, yeah, I don't know whether I encouraged them to enlist or not. I probably did in some of the appearances that I made there. But I don't remember at that particular time.