Densho Digital Archive - Sachiye Okamoto - Miho Shiroishi Interview (denshovh-osachiye

<Begin Segment 20>

AL: Another question is that obviously you're from Terminal Island, but after the "loyalty questionnaire," a large percentage of Terminal Island's population, I don't know exactly how many, but it seems like a majority decided to go to Tule Lake. And how did life change for you guys as Terminal Islanders when so many Terminal Islanders left?

MS: Oh, that reminds me. When the war broke out, when the FBI came, we were getting ready to go to Japan, it seems like, we were packing. And that's why I remember that one particular room where everything was in, I just thought of it. They said that we were packing to go to Japan.

KL: To move to Japan?

SO: We were being sent back, I believe.

KL: What do you mean?

SO: I think it's... I don't know if it's because our mother came in illegally. I remember there was a paper after my father passed away, seems to me like we were scheduled to go on this ship called something-something maru, and the war started, and so we didn't go. We went to... and they took our father away, so it seems like I guess if it wasn't for the war, we'd probably have gone back to Japan.

KL: But you don't think it was by your parents' choice?

SO: Oh, no, no. We were being sent back.

MS: So I guess it's a wonder we got to Manzanar instead of Tule Lake, is that right?

KL: Many people from Terminal Island did go to Tule Lake. And some people, I mean, by choice, some people went to Japan before the war started. Everyone's lives just changed.

SO: No, our father wouldn't have allowed that. He wouldn't have agreed to send us back, for all of us to go back, because he was just too much American, right?

KL: Do you think the World War II experience of Bismarck and Santa Fe and Manzanar, how did they change his thinking about being a member of society and the United States, and being American?

SO: No, he thought that this was the greatest country, and he just always said, like I said, he always said, "Just be glad you're an American." That was his famous word, and he was so proud that his children were American citizens. For what they, our parents went through, they had no hatred or resentment for the government, not at all. He just always said, "Just be glad you're an American."

KL: Did he become a U.S. citizen?

SO: Yes, he did.

KL: What do you recall about that?

SO: Well, like I said, he married for the third time, and he had to become a citizen for this woman to come from Tokyo, and that's when he got his citizenship.

KL: I want to hear more about that, but I want to try to keep us in order, too. So if I forget to ask about how he met her, please remind me. But I'll try to keep in order. Did you have anything else about Manzanar?

JB: Do you remember your address in Block 8?

KL: Your address in Block 8? Do you know which building and which...

MS: Yeah, it's on there.

KL: On the driver's license? Oh, 8-12-1, Manzanar. Do you, so we have this driver's license that I'm going to take a picture of, temporary chauffeur's license from the State of California, issued in Independence, October 10, 1945. Do you know why or how he got his driver's license?

MS: No, we were saying, what was he... he didn't have anything to drive.

SO: She says, "Guess what? I found Papa's driver's license." I said, "So what did he drive? What was the purpose of this?" We don't know.

KL: And you had no car before the war.

SO: No.

KL: So this was his first.

SO: Yeah, it was kind of...

KL: Do you remember him studying for an exam or anything?

SO: No.