<Begin Segment 27>

JS: You were able to come back to San Jose, as you said, fifteen days before the West Coast was opened for Japanese Americans to return. So actually you're here when the war is still going on as far as war against Japan is concerned. How were you able to do that?

ES: Well, it's a long story. Like I said at the beginning, that my dad says, upon evacuation, "I want to go home." But I'm all alone, I've been in contact by letter or newsletter to my friends and associates that I did business with here in San Jose. All along I would send the newsletter all the time, in the winter months when the holiday season comes, I would write to the Mercury Herald telling that, "We appreciate all that you've done for us, and also we give greetings to people in Santa Clara Valley." Christmas greeting, New Year's greeting. And I kept that up. I kept up with all my friends telling them just what I'm doing, what is it like, and they understood. They were mostly educators that I contact with, or person who had lot, better education than average people.

JS: But exactly, though, did you have to petition somebody because, to do this, to be able to get out of camp, to come back?

ES: Oh yes. All along, I've been writing letter to Western Defense Command, and also to the Quakers and the... another organization, I can't think of the name now, and my friends. And finally, oh, property. In the camp, they had property custodian, which takes care of evacuee property problems. And I kept hounding him that I'd like to return because one of the crop's been terribly neglected. You want to know how I found that out? Well, I had friends in the valley that would tell me, but they wouldn't want to be quoted. So then the property department went to get photograph, and then they told me, "Oh, photographing, you can't tell the difference." I says, "Well, maybe somebody else can't, but I can." I could tell a dead tree or a neglected orchard, or ladders strewn all over. And they finally believed me, so that's the reason I was able to come back.

JS: So, so did the government then allow you to do that? Come back or...

ES: Yes.

JS: So there was...

ES: They gave me a...

JS: How did you, how did you manage to get from Wyoming back to California?

ES: Oh, by bus.

JS: Okay. Did you encounter any difficulties en route?

ES: Oh, yeah. In Butte, Montana, "No Japs, No Japs." So I couldn't eat my lunch there.

JS: And when you got here, did you come directly to San Jose, or did you...

ES: Yes. Oh, no, I stayed over at Reverend, Dr. Smith's home that night in Berkeley.

JS: Uh-huh. And who was Dr. Smith?

ES: He's a Methodist minister.

JS: Okay. And what was your relationship with him and why were you able to, why did you stay with him?

ES: Well, he visited Heart Mountain on a missionary.

JS: Okay. You made contact.

ES: Then I was farm superintendent, so I made contact.

JS: Oh.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2005 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.