<Begin Segment 22>

KL: So when did you turn eighteen? Did you have to answer the questionnaire in early 1943?

ST: Probably.

KL: Yeah. So I would like for you guys to just talk about your memories. I know your mom had opinions about the draft, and your folks had to answer the questionnaire. Would you just tell us what you remember about that whole question of military service for Japanese Americans and the questionnaire and how your family dealt with that?

MS: I didn't really understand it all, but I know I heard a lot of the "yes-yes" "no-no" discussions, that's all you kept hearing about was "yes-yes," "no-no."

ST: By the time I was drafted, it was all settled, so didn't have to think about it.

MS: Yeah. But the other three brothers had to do it all. And they all answered "yes-yes." But then the draft itself didn't take place immediately. Then it was when Chick and Nij were in Caldwell, Idaho, that they started actually drafting, and that's when the meetings started, and that's when our mother got very vocal about it, and she had somebody write her a letter to the President protesting it. When the boys came back to camp, she told them she didn't want them to go and all this, and I remember she made a little snack for Nij and he was sitting at that little table. I even remember what she made. I don't know where she got it, but she had a green pepper, and she toasted it on the potbelly stove. And Japanese, you know, rice with tea on it is a treat, okay? So he had rice with tea on it and she had this little green pepper that she had cooked with soy sauce, and he's sitting there eating this and she was talking to him. And he basically said, well, he doesn't know anything about Japan, and this is the only country he knows, and he didn't want to go to Japan. I could tell by her face that she was very disheartened, but there was nothing she could do. And he basically said, "We all feel the same way," so he was kind of the spokesperson for the other brothers. So after that, she didn't go to any more meetings. But apparently she did get a reply from Washington. Did you ever read the letter?

ST: No.

MS: See? None of us read it for some reason. We never thought to read it. Well, I'm sure it was kind of like a letter of rejection, but I know she kept it for a long time.

KL: So this conversation that happened with her and your brother, was that during all the broader conversations about the questionnaire, or had they already answered?

MS: This is, they had already answered it. But they came back because they had to report for the draft. So it was... I mean, it had to be devastating for her, because now she's losing all her boys, and of course, by then, also, our father had had several strokes, so she was busy taking care of him. So I'm thinking she's thinking ahead, you know, with the boys gone, what's gonna happen to us?

KL: Did the strokes start in Topaz?

MS: I think he had one before camp.

ST: Yeah?

MS: One light one. Then he had bad ones in camp.

KL: Do you know how your parents answered those two questions on the questionnaire?

ST: Never asked, was never told.

MS: I thought that was only for the...

KL: Draft eligible?

ST: Yeah, yeah.

KL: No, Issei had to answer it, too, it was a different questionnaire for people who were draft eligible than for everyone else.

MS: Okay.

KL: But there were, it was still very controversial and very confusing.

MS: Okay. I didn't know they had to answer it also. I thought it was only for the Japanese Americans.

KL: These meetings in the mess hall, your mom would speak at them?

MS: Oh, yeah.

KL: Was that unusual as a woman, an Issei woman?

MS: Well, it was like we said, she was always very political, and she spoke up. [Laughs]

ST: Oh, yeah.

MS: So apparently she was kind of like the ringleader saying, "Hey." So it really took the wind out of her sails when the boys came home and said that they were going. I'm sure she was saying, "We should make them, all convince them to not go."

KL: How did other people respond, like other neighbors, other Issei, respond to her outspokenness?

MS: I think they probably pretty much agreed with her, but then it doesn't matter if the kids don't. I don't think any of the Isseis would have argued against her on that.

KL: Did your dad have a strong opinion?

ST: Nope. [Laughs]

KL: Not that you knew about, anyway.

ST: Anything that he felt or thought, he talked with her. But he was the silent partner, so to speak. [Laughs]

KL: Did it cause any trouble between her and the administration? Did she ever have visits from any...

MS: No, no.

KL: So your older brothers were actually, it sounds like they were on a work furlough, they were in Idaho at the time?

MS: Yes, yes.

KL: And then they came back and said they were gonna volunteer or were okay with being drafted?

MS: No, I guess they got their notices, so they had to.

KL: I see. What was their military experience? Where were they sent, what did they do when they were deployed?

MS: Well, the oldest brother, Yoneji, went to Germany.

ST: Germany. Chick went to Japan, and little brother went to Germany after the war.

KL: After the war?

ST: I was in training when the war ended.

KL: You were in military training?

ST: Oh, yeah.

KL: So you, were you drafted then in Topaz?

ST: Yeah.

KL: How did you feel about that?

ST: Yeah. Why not? Everybody else was going.

KL: Did it affect your relationship with your mother?

MS: No, he didn't have to do the fight because the brothers already did it.

KL: It was a done deal, yeah. And then what about the third brother? There was a third brother who...

MS: Yeah, he had nephritis. That's when he found out that he had kidney failure.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.