<Begin Segment 6>

FA: We were at war with Germany, we're at war with Japan, and what was it like for you as a Nisei, Shige? Were you proud to see Nisei boys, Japanese American boys in uniform?

SK: Well, yes, however, we didn't see many of them.

FA: Could you just tell me how you felt? Start, "I was proud."

SK: Yes, I was proud to see the young men in uniform. We had a few men, one of them who was from Omaha was, since he had graduated from the University of Nebraska, had, was able to go to the candidate school. Officer's Candidate School, I guess, whatever it was. And he came back in lieutenant's uniform, but no, we saw the others, too. We were very proud because there were, our community was one that wasn't touched by the war the same way the others were on the West Coast. But I think as a result of it, more of them, I think, needed to prove, too, that they wanted to be a part of it. Yes, and there were, and Japanese families in those days, I had forgotten about it until we just mentioned it, but they very much wanted to give the boys a big send-off and let them know that they were proud that they were going. So there would always be these big dinners before they would go. There would be money that they would bring to their family, that sort of thing -- or to the young man, you know. And then there would always be a big send-off down at the Union Pacific depot. That was, that was our way of showing them that we were proud that we had them in our midst.

FA: I'm gonna jump to the very end now. To the present -- we, you weren't aware at the time, and Ben will talk about this later, but at Heart Mountain they had this Fair Play Committee. Were you aware of that at the time when, wherever you were? Were you aware that these people resisted the draft?

SK: Only through the Pacific Citizen. Whatever information we had was only through the Pacific Citizen. I think that was the... so yes, we were aware, of course, as I've mentioned to Ben, too, in our discussion of it, I think we're talking of a different period of our lives. I think at that point we did nothing to, to... roil the waters, we wanted to keep everything as placid as we could. It was almost as if we had a tendency to try to push what was happening as far away as... that isn't us, it's not touching us, but nevertheless, we were very much aware that we were Japanese. We were also, we, we were a part of it nevertheless. And in thinking about it... then, I think I thought that, yes, they probably were guilty. However, in retrospect, I'm not so sure that I feel the same way anymore. I think I, I have a feeling more of compassion than I do, that they had their reasons, and they certainly were, had to be very, very brave to have stood by their principles. That isn't easy to do, particularly in war. It would be so much easier to just follow in whatever footsteps they wanted you to follow. So in a way, I think I must have had some feeling that the Japanese heritage did require us to stand by our principles. At the same time, I think that they were, I was aware that it was a very, very difficult time for them. And their actions were creating some problems for the others. However, I've, I've had to step back from that. And I can't appreciate what was being done to them to be, to have forced them into that situation. But, but then in hindsight, don't we all see the errors that we made then?

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1998, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.