<Begin Segment 12>

MM: As an American of Japanese ancestry at this time in our nation's history, what was going through your mind? What were your feelings as we were entering into this war with the nation of Japan?

RK: Well, as I recall, it wasn't that, I didn't feel that mixed up. I think our loyalties were clear. We're Americans, and we'd try to do our best. And, but there was discrimination in the sense that those of us of Japanese ancestry were more under suspicion. We couldn't take national defense jobs. My friends, my older friends who were in the National Guard were kicked out, unceremoniously. We were classified 4-F and so on. And so it wasn't a happy time. Of course, no one was happy in those days. But in Hawaii we were fortunate in we had friends, non-Japanese, who, I think, stuck up for us and helped a great deal in easing the tensions.

MM: Was it difficult as a seventeen- and eighteen-year-old young man to put together what was happening in terms of being at war, being Japanese American, being discriminated against, and yet believing in democracy?

RK: To some extent, but you know, at that age, you don't give much thought to all of this. Although, I guess I was conscious that this was a historical event and so forth because I ran out and bought every newspaper that came out that week. I have a whole collection of December 7th through 12th newspapers, every extra that came out with the glaring headline, "Saboteurs Land," which was false. It was an interesting time. But we knew where our loyalties lay, and most of our friends never questioned this. We didn't see our lives as being too different from others. We all had to suffer. We had to dig air raid shelters. We had to observe blackout rules. We couldn't go out at night. We had to darken our homes. And everyone worried about food shortages, which never really seriously came about.

MM: Do you remember having any discussions with your mother or father at this time?

RK: I guess we talked about it somewhat, but not really in the sense of questioning our motives, anything of that sort. I think both of them accepted the fact that we were Americans. When a call came out for 442nd, to form the 442nd, both my older brother and I wanted to go, and my mother said, "No, no, only one of you can go." So my older brother went, but unfortunately he was rejected for health reasons. He found out he has a very bad eye. At any rate, next time the call came for Military Intelligence, I volunteered and got in. But my parents, if anything, encouraged us to do this.

MM: Were you aware of what was happening to Japanese Americans on the continental United States?

RK: Somewhat. But I think that's a story that we in Hawaii really don't appreciate. Dan Inouye tells the story of how he was in the 442nd at Camp Shelby. The conflict between the Japanese from Hawaii, called "Buddhaheads," and the Japanese from the mainland, called "Kotonks" getting in constant fights, and he says that it became so bad, they were thinking of disbanding the 442nd. And someone, they did counseling and all of this but nothing seemed to work. So they, someone had the bright idea that maybe these Hawaii boys ought to see what the Japanese on the mainland experienced. So Dan says, some of the Hawaii boys, the leaders of the Hawaii gangs were put on buses and sent to, I guess, Jerome or Rohwer in Arkansas to see the camps. And they were just amazed at what they saw. So the attitudes changed towards the "Kotonks." And as Dan says, "Would we have volunteered had we been treated that way? Put in concentration camps." So... but, I don't think you really, Mitch, you can't get the full flavor of this. So in a sense, I'm hoping that if I get to Rohwer or Jerome I'd get a -- of course, my uncle was interned. And I think he was at Jerome for a while, his whole family, and at Tule Lake. And one of the ironies was when I was in the army and I was gonna be shipped overseas, the war, and from -- fortunately, the war with Japan had just ended. I stopped by -- as I was sent to Fort Mason in San Francisco -- I stopped by to see my uncle in Tule Lake. And here I am in a uniform of the U.S. army, and I've got to get checked through to see my uncle who's interned in Tule Lake. There's an irony in this.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2004 Japanese American National Museum. All Rights Reserved.