Densho Digital Archive - James Omura Interview I (denshovh-ojimmie-02-0022)

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JO: It was actually Pacific Coast Evacuee Placement Bureau, and it was an accident. We had set up an office for Current Life to resume publication. And so many people came and gave us a sob story of how difficult it was to get jobs, and suddenly the idea sprang to light that these people, that we ought to help these people. So we converted the magazine into a Pacific Coast Evacuee Placement Bureau and began to offer them a free service. And we ran it for a year.

FA: Where did the money come from?

JO: The money came out of Current Life, because we had a substantial amount left over from when we were kicked out of San Francisco.

FA: Did that money run out?

JO: Yes, it ran out toward the... toward the, toward the fall month, I guess.

FA: Then where did the money come from?

JO: Well, I had to go gardening and try to raise more funds. And then I felt that the service had worn out its use, since by then, the private agency arose.

FA: What effect financially did the trial, your prosecution have on you?

JO: Well, I went broke and had to start from scratch. Had a tremendous effect on us financially because, see, my wife went out when the community refused to donate to the defense fund, she went out and got a double job and worked long hours in order to raise enough funds to bond me out. I had to be bonded out because that was the only way the attorney says that we could consult and do the job.

[Interruption]

FA: So you needed money after your arrest. Someone, your wife contacted all the writers?

JO: She contacted all the, the address, names and addresses that I had in the office. And, which included people in camp and people outside of camp, New York, Chicago, all around. And she wasn't able to raise a dime except my brother who put up $150, the one that just died.

FA: At some point, didn't you say that the writers had abandoned you?

JO: That was when we were on the reparation deal.

[Interruption]

JO: Well, that was pretty plain because it's the feeling generated from them at whatever affairs I attended, churches or at the bowling, for instance. And then you hear side remarks by members of the opposing team or your own team sometimes. And, and I remember one incident where I was in with a group that was Sylvia Toshiyuki's group or Taul Watanabe's group, and they asked me to stay around to go golfing with them. And I'm no golf bug. They are very strong on golf so I stuck around and I followed them out to the golf links. And this is late at night, you know, about midnight or early in the morning. And we went out to the golf links and start to shoot balls or golf practice course there. And I was the second person to get the balls and golf club. And the first one went to the left so I went to the left, too. And all the rest went to the right. And then when this first fellow emptied his bucket, well, he went to the right instead of coming back. Well, I knew then that that everybody was sort of ostracizing me. So when I finished my bucket, why, I just got on my car and drove on home. And that's the last I associated with a group.