Densho Digital Archive - Arthur Nishimoto Interview (denshovh-narthur-01-0029)

<Begin Segment 29>

AL: And your parents, you said both of your parents passed away at eighty-nine. What did they do the rest of their lives, just retire? Did they stay in Hawaii, your mother and father?

AN: Yeah.

AL: What did you think about the redress movement? I mean, I know that was really about people who were in the camps, but you know, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988? I mean, the bill is HR442, you know, where people who were in the camps got an apology and a payment of $20,000. Did you have any sort of opinion on that?

AN: Yeah, I thought, well, first of all, going to camp, that was the most dumbest thing they did, moving over a hundred thousand people from the West Coast, I thought that was stupid. That was the most dumbest thing the government ever did. Because of a few of the leadership in the West Coast, especially General what's his name, the military general, he should know better. And then all fell in line with him, the governors, I mean, the politicians, they all fell in line with him. And then it went as far as all the way up the West Coast, even to Utah, Idaho, it caught on like fire. In other words, all these years, they had it in the hopper, no one came out and talked until when the war came out, then they let out everything how they felt about the Japanese people. Number one, they were good farmers, not only farmers, but they were good businessmen, all up and down the coast, and they were jealous of their business. I think that's the reason why they hated the Japanese, because the Japanese people are industrious people, they are. And so I think they hated that because of their business acumen and whatever they had, they were good at it. But the war gave them an excuse to say something, and they said the wrong thing, and they convinced the President of the United States that they should remove. And that was a costly move, too, all the extra money they spent. And if the people were there, I think the West Coast would be better off today. I really think that the West Coast, California especially, would not be in the condition they're in today. The frustration is California's broke. They're broke.

AL: Why didn't they take the Japanese Americans on Hawaii?

AN: The reason why is because we were the majority. We held the islands together. If they shipped all of us out, who they going to turn to to run the islands? They didn't have people to, that can run the island. They cannot depend on the Hawaiians, the Filipinos, because they weren't that motivated to do those things. They were more laborer type, work in the field, where the Orientals, the Japanese and Chinese in Hawaii were businesspeople, government people. If they shipped all of us out, they would have sunk. The military would have had their hands tied, they couldn't move. And then the military and the government, they knew that they can trust us; they loved us. That's the reason why they went back to President Roosevelt and told him, "Hey, don't ever touch any of these people, we trust them. We have to rely on them. There's no such thing what you guys are doing on the West Coast. You guys are doing the wrong thing, it's up to you people, but don't touch the people in Hawaii." That's what happened; that's our government in Hawaii, told them don't touch us. That's the reason why many of us weren't sent to camp. There were a couple of them, a few of them that went.

AL: Do you know why some people from Hawaii went to camp?

AN: No, I really don't know, but what I heard, because they were, some of them were good businesspeople, some of them were schoolteachers teaching Japanese school and all that. Maybe those are the main reasons why. But there weren't too many, just a handful.

AL: So I should know the answer to this but I don't. The people who were in Hawaii, or the guys that were in the 442nd, you guys did not get redress because you were not in camp, right? You didn't get anything out of the redress act of 1988?

AN: We didn't get nothing out of what?

AL: The payment. You didn't get the $20,000 payment.

AN: Oh, no, no.

AL: It was only people in camps.

AN: Only in camp. Yeah, we didn't.

AL: Why do you think, or what do you think is important about sites -- I know you haven't been to Manzanar, but do you think these sites should be preserved, and if so, why?

AN: I think they should be preserved. I think it's a good idea that you're preserving at least one or two of 'em, anyway, to remind the people what had happened. Because this is not a small thing that happened, it was a major thing that happened when they opened up these camps. I think... what, we had ten camps? I think each camp should have some memorial or something, where they were, all ten of 'em, to remind the people that this is the place, this kind of place where people of the United States were sent to. I think they should, at least something. Let the younger generation know that things can happen here in this country.

AL: Do you think it could ever happen again?

AN: I don't think so. But, you know, the Japanese are not the only ones. Don't forget, the Italians were also incarcerated, we don't talk about them too much, but they were. There were some Italians and maybe a few Germans. They were, like we were, but they weren't en masse like we were.

AL: So you mentioned before that you had gone back to Italy. How many times have you gone back?

AN: Where?

AL: To Italy.

AN: Only once after the war.

AL: What was that like, to go back?

AN: Oh, it was a real memorable trip for me, all of us. We couldn't believe that we did this, did we go over that? You know, we couldn't believe what we did. But it was... and, of course, the people in France, Italy, treated us real royally. It was really the way they welcomed us, the whole town come out, played music for us, parade and all that. Of course, the main thing was that we went to see the cemeteries of all our friends that are still buried there, in France and Italy. I didn't realize that we had that many of our boys buried that didn't come home.

AL: They're still young men.

AN: Huh?

AL: They're still young men.

AN: Yeah.