Densho Digital Archive - George Maeda Interview (denshovh-mgeorge

<Begin Segment 15>

KL: Do you have any recollections -- and you were young -- but the leave questionnaire, the selective service forms, most people call it the "loyalty questionnaire," the government distributed in 1943?

GM: My father came home from that meeting, and he explained to us what he had put down. I remember that he got us all together and explained it to us. But I have notes on that, but it was very controversial because of the two questions. If you said "no"... if you said, "yes," I will do whatever the government wants for the sake of this country, it meant that you were, it could mean that you were disloyal before or something. It was very controversial.

KL: How did your dad explain it to you, do you remember?

GM: He said something to the effect, "We're in this country so we're loyal to this country," or something to that effect. It was positive. My aunt, meanwhile, who lived a block away, she was a widow, didn't know what was going to happen. The fear that a lot of people had was that if they said "yes" they will be loyal, they would lose their Japanese citizenship because they chose to stay in this country. And the immigrants were not allowed to apply for citizenship, so they would have been, existed in a country without citizenship. That was one of the fears. So the people that wanted to go back to Japan, a lot of them... this I read about, was told, said whatever, no or yes so that at least they can go back to a country where they had a citizenship, if that made any sense.

KL: What was your aunt's name?

GM: Nishida.

KL: Who was she... how was she related to you?

GM: She was my father's younger sister. By the way, those who said "no" or whatever went to Tule Lake. And all the... and her offsprings were citizens, and they lost their citizenship. Soon as you went to Tule Lake, you lost your citizenship, is what I understand.

KL: Some people did. There was a second, there was an unprecedented law that some people renounced their citizenship in time of war, and a lot of people did that in Tule Lake.

GM: Now, my cousin, for instance, lost his, and one of the ways they could regain it was to volunteer for the military. So he volunteered for the military and got his citizenship back.

KL: Oh, wow. So he never got sent to Japan?

GM: No, no. Wait a minute. My aunt did for a short time, and then she came back, yes.

KL: And this was her son, you said, who volunteered?

GM: Yes. It was, yeah, very controversial, and people didn't know how to answer. And from what I hear, if you didn't answer, you were threatened.

KL: In Manzanar even?

GM: This is what I hear. If they didn't answer, it's because they didn't know what to answer. If they said one thing, they might lose their citizenship from both countries. They couldn't apply for one here, they would lose it from Japan.

KL: Do you remember people leaving for Tule Lake?

GM: You know, I don't. Yet it happened during my stay there, but I don't remember any parting meetings or anything.