Densho Digital Archive - George Yoshinaga Interview (denshovh-ygeorge

<Begin Segment 27>

AL: When did you, just a couple quick questions, 'cause I know we got to... but when did you first start writing "Horse's Mouth"?

GY: When did I start it?

AL: Yeah.

GY: Well, I started in camp but it wasn't the Horse's Mouth then. It was after I started at Crossroads and then I just used my name then but then there was a guy named Masamori Kojima who was a publisher and he said, "Why don't we use your nickname?" And at that time I think there was a book called the Horse's Mouth so there was a little problem there. It was illegal for me to use that when there was someone that wrote a book with the title Horse's Mouth. But then we started it and nobody said anything so it just continued for all these years. [Laughs]

AL: You're always Horse's Mouth to me. So I told you in my email that the most burning question I had was -- and I feel like I need to ask it because it's important that we document it -- but where do you get all those bad jokes?

GY: [Laughs]

AL: 'Cause they're really bad.

GY: You should see the ones that I censor, boy, I'm telling you if I put all the jokes that I want to put, they'll probably say this is a family newspaper. [Laughs]

AL: Some of them are pretty bad but I have to say, even though I'm not Nisei when I look in the Rafu I always skim your column and any references that you ever have to camp things we cut out and we keep a reference file of any articles out of the Rafu related to World War II, to camps, to obituaries. So we have a whole collection of Horse's Mouth related to camp.

GY: Well, you'll see one this next Tuesday.

AL: Uh oh. [Laughs] No, but I think it's like I said before a lot of people who I mean we talk to a lot of people who are the first people who are willing to speak out which is wonderful. But we also know that doesn't represent everybody and there's a lot people who quietly read their newspapers or raise their grandkids or whatever and are not at the forefront of being willing to talk. So that's why we wanted to get your interview. Before we conclude, I was just wondering if there's anything that you guys, any questions that you had to add?

Off camera: I had one question for you and that is very briefly how do you think the whole evacuation and going to camp, how was it detrimental to Japanese community in America and how was it beneficial?

GY: Judging from my own experience, it changed. I think eighty-five percent of the lives of Japanese American's changed and not for the worse but I think that it changed for the better for many Japanese Americans. Like myself, I wouldn't say I'm a huge success as a newspaperman but if it wasn't for evacuation I wouldn't have a college education, I'd be working on the farm, and so from that perspective there's... I know a lot of my friends say the same thing. The evacuation, the reason behind it was not very good but it did help improve the lives... 'cause a lot of my friends that if they went to college they would've tried to get into SC or UCLA, but because of the evacuation and being exposed to the U.S. for the first time, they went to places like Illinois University and I know six of my friends got degrees from Midwest and eastern universities that they never could have imagined doing if it wasn't for the evacuation.

AL: Do you guys have any questions?

Off camera: I have one question that sort of to take you back to the time when you first the entered the army when you left camp and you joined the military. How were you treated from that very first day that you boarded the bus?

GY: Well, the thing was, all along the way we were treated differently after talking to other, my Caucasian friends that went in the service. I think that we were sort of put on the one side of the... and the fact that we were our own Japanese American unit when we went to basic training, I still remember we would march by and they'll be non-Japanese GIs watching us and they'd look at us like what's this? And that was, to me was, as I look back it was kind of amusing.

Off camera: What did the military commanders over you say to you?

GY: That's the thing is that most of them never saw a Japanese American before. I know in Camp Blanding there wasn't a single noncom or an officer that knew what a Japanese American was. But because of the way we trained and I guess it may sound like bragging but we were more attentive to authority, they quickly... I remember my sergeant said, "When they first assigned me to your unit I said, 'What the heck is this?'" But then by the time we finished our basic he had a whole different attitude toward Japanese Americans. But only thing problem we had was the non-Japanese Americans GIs 'cause they're training to fight a war in Japan or in the Pacific. So when they see Japanese American units training they get kind of confused. And the thing that I remember also was that when I was at in Kansas when we first were inducted, they had a Japanese POW that they captured. A lot of people don't know but they shipped them back here and they had them doing gardening work and cleaning up the fort and I was surprised too, at that, since I never heard of such a thing you know. One day I'm out there I see these, I thought they were Niseis but I found out they were Japanese POWs.

AL: Did you ever learn to speak Japanese?

GY: Oh yeah, after I went to work in Japan, every night at first I bought a tape recorder and then I would listen to tapes and then try to emulate what they were saying. But I was like a comedian. Every time I spoke Japanese everybody laughed. I said maybe I should be a comedian and go on stage and use my Japanese.

AL: So you don't write a Japanese version in the Rafu on the Japanese pages?

GY: No.

AL: Well is there anything else that you wanted to say to us or to history?

GY: No, I appreciate your taking the time to listen my gab. [Laughs]

AL: Well, we really appreciate your time and so on behalf of the National Park Service and the staff at Manzanar --

GY: I'd like to come up one day and visit you people.

AL: Yeah, we hope you do and let us know, we'll give you the grand tour. Anyway, thank you Mr. Yoshinaga.