Densho Digital Archive - Sumiko Yamauchi Interview (denshovh-ysumiko

<Begin Segment 18>

WP: Do you remember any discussion about the draft when you were at Manzanar? I know you had...

SY: Oh, they were drafting in camp.

WP: Uh-huh, could you tell me about that?

SY: And then there was a lot of 'em near the end, a lot of my classmates, the menfolks, were drafted, yeah. Which was not... I mean, it wasn't unusual, they were doing it from the very beginning, and they were all sent to 442nd Battalion in, where was it, in the south somewhere.

WP: And you had mentioned earlier that your sister might have a very different perspective of what life was like at Manzanar, and did she have friends that were drafted or that went into the 442?

SY: Oh, I'm sure she did, yeah.

WP: And what were your feelings on the draft?

SY: You know, there was no... there was no ugliness going into camp. I mean, it was uncomfortable, I could complain about my bed here, just like I did when I was in camp. Politically and everything else, we just never did express our opinion as far as politically. We hated the wind and the dust, but that has nothing to do with... I didn't hate the United States. I didn't... I think if I had to go to Japan, I know my girlfriend did, one of my friends, not my girlfriend. She was in the same block as I was, and her mother and father decided that they didn't want to stay here in America, so they went to Tule Lake. Tule Lake, she went back to Japan. And she did write me right after the war. And she told me how miserable it was because of the living conditions, what they didn't have or what they couldn't have, how they were discriminated because, "You came back and now we have to divide the little that we have with you." She said it was not, it was not good. But I never did want to go anywhere anyway. I mean, where can I go? I can't speak, I'm afraid that they'll ship me somewhere because I don't know how the Constitution works. [Laughs]

WP: What was your family's experience with the "loyalty questionnaire"?

SY: Well, my father said... my mother said, "I am going to stay with my kids." My father said, "I want to go back to Japan." So my mother said, "Okay, you can go, you're free to do what you want." Because he was always saying, "I want to go back to Japan." He used to always say when we were growing up, "When we go back to Japan," you know. And I used to hate to hear that because I didn't think I'd be comfortable there. But my mother said, if you want to go, so near the end, he thought, "Well, I don't want to go by myself," so he did stay. But that's where our loyalty is.

WP: I'm trying to... were you old enough to fill out the "loyalty questionnaire," did you answer that?

SY: Yes, yes.

WP: And so you answered yes.

SY: I said "yes-yes."

WP: And what about your sister, did she feel differently?

SY: Well, see, she was an American citizen, so, you know, we were all American citizens, so regardless... it was only if because you were underage that you couldn't, you couldn't say no, because, and go to Japan if the parents weren't there to... I mean, she couldn't stay here without her parent because she was of the age. But she was already in Chicago. It was me and my two brothers, and we decided no.

WP: Do you remember the process of actually filling out the "loyalty questionnaire"?

SY: No. It was very simple.

WP: Uh-huh. Did you have to have an interview with anybody?

SY: No.

WP: No?

SY: I mean, the neighbors, you know. "What are you gonna do?" kind of a thing. Or, "What did they do," kind of a thing.

[Interruption]

WP: And so these conversations that the neighbors were having, was there conflict between people because of how they felt about how they should answer the questions?

SY: No, because it was your choice no matter... nobody tried to talk us out of it or into it or anything. It was your choice to choose whatever you thought was right.

WP: And so your parents debated about it a lot, or how did your mom convince...

SY: No, no. My father was a very definite, "We're going there," we went there. Everything was black and white, there was no discussion. So when my mother and my father said he was gonna say "no-no," my mother said, "Okay. I am staying with the children," that was it. So it was up to him. If he wanted to stay, if he wanted to go, there was no argument.