Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Richard M. Murakami Interview
Narrator: Richard M. Murakami
Interviewer: Larisa Proulx
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: November 19, 2014
Densho ID: denshovh-mrichard_2-01-0010

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LP: So the timing of leaving Tule Lake and going to Jerome was because of the questionnaire, it sounds like.

RM: Yes.

LP: Can you talk a little bit about what the questionnaire was and the reaction and the feeling about what that was, what the purpose of it was, why people wanted to, or felt they should or shouldn't answer it particularly?

RM: In our family, we were that close to my father saying "no-no." The reason is, my father felt that we needed to go back to Japan because of my two brothers. And my mother said, "If we're going back to Japan, how would we live?" And my father thought about that, and there was no way he would make a living. So that's why my father decided to go "yes-yes," and by going "yes-yes" he kept the family together, you know, my uncles and aunts, except for one. And the only reason that one didn't go is because my uncle had been picked up by the Department of Justice, and that family stayed in Tule Lake, so that's why we left. And I have to tell you, my father, when we went to camp -- and I remember this distinctly because when you lived in a small little room with only a blanket hanging, my mother and father would talk in the evenings, and my father said, he's a Kibei, he was educated in Japan, but he really believed in the United States. He said, "We are United States citizens, and they're going to let us out in six months." He really believed in that. And he says, "Besides, we're farmers, and United States needs food during the war, so they're going to let us out." That didn't happen. So when it came to questionnaire, even though he was going to go "no-no" because of my brothers, he really said "yes-yes," so that's when we left Tule Lake to go to Jerome. And so the whole family went. It's my belief that because of what happened to us, and we didn't get to go out, my father was very disillusioned, and he was very unhappy. He never said anything to us, or anything about it, he never talked about camp or anything afterwards. But my opinion, he was very, very disillusioned, he really worked hard. Because he really believed in the United States. I just, from... and really myself, I pick up after my father, and I really believed in the United States. I call myself a proud American, I'll say that to anybody, I'm a proud American. And it's how you believe, I picked that up from him. But he was disillusioned. Excuse me for saying that.

LP: One of the things that the person yesterday remembered was a lot of meetings and people... because it caused a lot of chaos, a lot of discussion, some people were having these conversations very privately within their family, but then other people were very outspoken, trying to bring up bigger conversations about what it meant for everybody in the camp to answer a particular way? Although you were a child, was any of that apparent to you and other kinds of parts of the camp, or did you get a sense of maybe your parents felt that there were bigger discussions that they were being asked to participate in or anything like that.

RM: Never, never. He never talked to us, or my mother talked to us about anything that was, would be considered anti-U.S. Never, never, never, not one word.

LP: The kids that you played with in camp, did they ever, did they seem aware of what was going on in their families, the conversations? Why mom or dad feels that we should answer this way? Was there, between peers, and at a childhood level, was that at all something?

RM: See, and my mother told us afterwards about going to Japan and all that, and I know that, how my father felt. See, I remember how my father felt in 1940. I remember my mother and father talking, in 1940, it was an election year, I was eight years old, I remember them sitting at dinner and talking about who they're going to vote for President. People says, "How you remember that?" I remember that, eight years old. I remember exactly who would vote for President and why. That's how my father felt about this country. So when he went in, that's why he said we're gonna be out. But he never said anything to us about anything anti or anything, he just, he accepted what it is and he kept it to himself. So all through the war and after.

LP: So after the questionnaire stuff was done, at what point did you become aware of moving from Tule Lake?

RM: About the questionnaire, you know, I really did not become of the questionnaire, what was asked and everything else until after I came here to volunteer here, and what the questionnaire was about. And then what my mother had said about almost saying, my father saying he wanted to go back to Japan, that's all after, long, long after.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.