<Begin Segment 12>

SF: Tell us what happened to your dad.

HT: He went to, well, when the war started, he had some kind of problems with breathing, so I think he was in the hospital, this is what I heard. That he was in the hospital in an iron lung, put in an iron lung. And when the war broke out, the first thing the FBI went up there and they didn't ask anybody, they just walked up to the iron lung and opened it up and dragged him out. And they tried to stop 'em and said, "What the hell you doing?" "He's a 'Jap.'" And the FBI just grabbed him, you know, pajama-looking, then I think Frank, the administrator saw that, hakujin, and he put a stop to that. He said, "You put him back. He's a sick man." And they said, "Well, a 'Jap's' a 'Jap,' we're gonna take him away, put him in jail." So they called up FBI headquarters, I guess it was, and talked to the head of the FBI to ask what the heck is going on. And that man on the other end said, "Let me speak to the agents over there," and they told the agents, "Put him back right now. Don't touch him. Put him back, he's a sick man." So they put him back in the iron lung. And they said, "We'll come after you later." So said, "Okay, we'll let you know when he feels better." So when he came out of the house, came out of the hospital, then next day they came and took him away, and to jail they went. And we didn't know what's going on, we couldn't do anything. We were kids. They went to, he was in jail for, I guess, for three days for interrogation, then they decided to take him to some, I guess, prison camp, up in Montana, Missoula?

TI: Yeah, Missoula, Montana.

HT: Yeah, Missoula. So they decided to take him up there, so they called up and told us to, "Say goodbye to your parents, father," so we went to the police station and we said goodbye to Dad. And my mother says, "Hiroshi, this shashin, go and give to your dad." So I got the picture and I went to Dad and said, "Dad, dad," I went up there, and bam, they beat me up almost. They pushed me on the ground, said, "Don't come close." So I couldn't give him the picture at that time.

TI: This was just a photograph of the family?

HT: Yeah, just the family. Yeah, I guess they thought I was carrying a machine gun or something, I don't know. They're paranoid people, my god. They really didn't treat us right at all in that case. And I was only a kid, what the hell am I going to do? Fight the police department? So they just pushed me back and I fell down, I think, and then they just told us to, "Stay away." So he, they took him off, they didn't tell us where they're going or nothing. All we knew was he was in some kind of camp. I don't know if Mom even got a letter from him, I don't know. I don't remember those things. But he came, he was one of the first people to come out of the camp, I later found out.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.