Densho Digital Archive - Kenji Ogawa Interview (denshovh-okenji

<Begin Segment 11>

KL: There was another guy who also worked in a mess hall who was also a leader in Manzanar named Harry Ueno. Do you know that name, does that mean anything to you? Did your folks know him?

KO: Maybe those people know my dad, I don't know.

KL: After the riot, there were some people who were put in jail in Independence and in Lone Pine. Was your dad ever put in jail?

KO: No.

KL: Do you know if he worried about it or if your mom worried about it?

KO: Maybe my mom. I'm still baby, so, didn't want to lose.

KL: There was a questionnaire, you mentioned the "yes-yes," "no-no" and your dad was kind of a leader with "no-no," what did your parents say about answering that questionnaire?

KO: [Laughs] He said everything "no-no," "glory to Japan."

KL: Why did he think that in 1943? And maybe it's obvious, but...

KO: I don't know. He's thinking Japan would win. My mom said, "No, I don't go back to Japan."

KL: But she did go with him to Tule Lake?

KO: Yeah. [Laughs]

KL: How did she feel about that, about going...

KO: She didn't like it. She didn't like it. She knows already, Japan, it was nothing, Japan.

KL: Yeah, do you have questions about Manzanar?

RM: Did your mom answer the questionnaire differently than your dad?

KL: I don't know, remember. My mom never talked about those things.

KL: Do you know when your family went to Tule Lake? The roster says February 21, 1944. Does that seem right, maybe?

KO: Yeah.

KL: Did your parents ever tell you what they thought of Tule Lake when they got there? You said your mom didn't want to go, what did she think when she was at Tule Lake? She's still pretty unhappy?

KO: She's not happy. See, you go Tule Lake and they're going to go Japan, most of them, they all went to Japan.

KL: Your sister Ryoko was born April 19, 1944. So it was kind of like you, your mom wasn't quite as pregnant, but again, she had to go somewhere new, pregnant, about to have a baby. Do you know if she did similar things, if she tried to hide her condition again on the train, or what the trip was like?

KO: No, she never said. But at Manzanar, yes, she hide, cut her hair and everything.

KL: In Manzanar?

KO: Uh-huh.

KL: Yeah. Did she say anything about what it was, did she have Ryoko in a hospital, or did she say anything about Ryoko's birth?

KO: No, everything's okay, then she have a cold, the high temperature.

KL: And then she had a cold with a high temperature, and then what happened?

KO: I guess the U.S. government sent a plane to get penicillin. So the United States government helped my sister, tried to get penicillin. Those days, only penicillin was good. But too late already.

KL: Yeah, the roster says that she died in August of 1945, so she was a year and a half old or so.

KO: Yeah, little baby.

KL: Do you remember her at all?

KO: No.

KL: We were looking at some pictures of her funeral, and Rose mentioned that it looked like a lot of people were there. Did your parents ever talk about the funeral?

KO: They say everybody came, sorry, lose the baby.

KL: What was that like for your mom to lose her daughter?

KO: Oh, you know, (...) she never forget. You know, we don't have, me and a brother, we don't have a sister, so she never forget that. She missed the daughter.

KL: What else did they say about Tule Lake?

KO: Tule Lake, she don't say too much, you know, both don't say too much. He wants to go home, you know, Japan.

KL: Do you know where they lived in Tule Lake?

KO: I have no idea. I want to go back maybe this, next year.

KL: Yeah, I hope you can, and I know Larisa --

KO: Maybe somebody know my... maybe Dr. Bo knows.

KL: We'll have to ask. Do you know if they stayed in, yeah, they stayed in touch with him at least back in California. Do you know the names of anyone that they were friends with in Tule Lake?

KO: No.

KL: Do know, there was a jail in Tule Lake. Do you know if your dad was ever in jail in Tule Lake or in the stockade?

KO: I don't know. Everybody say that's the troublemaker, you know, going to Tule Lake, "no-no," everybody say they're the troublemakers.

KL: When was your brother born?

KO: In Japan.