<Begin Segment 20>

FA: What happened to you, Jimmie, after the war back when you were in Denver, you were released, you needed a job, right?

JO: Uh-huh.

FA: Okay. Where did you go apply and what happened?

JO: Well, my strong suit at the time was that I knew the city and I didn't like a job just in one spot, I liked to move around, so I applied for a transfer job. And when I approached the office I was asked to wait for fifteen minutes. And while I as waiting, I saw a Nisei come out of a van where he was helping load, I guess, and averting his face, run across the dock to the office. He was in there for a considerable length of time and then he came out and still averting his face, he went back to the van. And about five minutes later I was called into the office, and when I opened the door and walked in I was facing the personnel director who was a young red-haired fellow, but his face was all red, red, too, as if he had been engaged in some kind of angry discussions. The first thing he asked me is, "Have you changed your mind?" Which struck me as odd so I asked him, "What about?" And he says, "Do you believe what you believe before?" And I says, "Why, sure." And he says, "You still believe what you believed before?" I said, "Yes." He says, "You haven't changed your mind?" I says, "No," I says, "there's no reason why I should change my mind because I was acquitted." And he says, "And you still believe the way you did?" I says, "Absolutely." And his face was all beet red, beet red and he was hostile right off the bat. He was so hostile. And I could read the signs. I know I'm not going to get the job, see. So he finally says to me, "Well," he says, "if we decide to hire you, we'll give you a telephone call." I know that the telephone call was not coming and I turned around and walked out of there knowing that that was all washed up. And it was.

FA: You got other jobs at other places where you happened to go where Nisei happened to work, too. What happened then after you got the job?

JO: Well, to tell you the truth, I didn't know that the Nisei were working there. I applied for the job. The next job I applied for, why, I got the job. And the man says to me, "Report in the morning at eight o'clock." And I went back home and about two hours later I received a telephone call from the personnel director who had interviewed, and he tells me, "We have three or four boys working for us and I talked to them," he says. "And feelings are running pretty high against you, and maybe you shouldn't report for work tomorrow morning." So I knew that job was washed out. He talked to me very nice, though.

FA: You did get a job, finally. You got a job and then --

JO: I got a job finally after a number of similar incidents.

FA: You were so broke by then, how did you get home, and why?

JO: Well, I walked all that distance in order to save ten cents car fare. Just couldn't afford it.

FA: How did you feel about that?

JO: Well, after work, a hard day's work, why, I almost threw up a couple times walking that distance. I felt pretty bad, to tell you the truth, because I didn't know if I could make it to next payday or first payday. Yeah, I felt pretty bad. Against, let's say the community as a whole.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 1990, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.