Densho Digital Archive - Midori Suzuki - Sanzui A. Takaha Interview (denshovh-smidori

<Begin Segment 23>

KL: Did you have questions about the questionnaire or the draft issue?

LP: Yeah. So we talked more about 27, I think, than 28. So was there any conversation or controversy that you're aware of with the whole question of renouncing loyalty to Japan and the emperor? Was that for both parents, immigrating, and a, kind of, open dialogue, or any conversation about what that meant, confusion?

MS: Well, I would imagine that was all discussed at the meetings.

ST: It was all settled by the time I was called, so I didn't hear anything about that.

LP: Do you, were you aware of other families that were in close proximity to where your barrack was, other people and how they were answering, or any kind of...

MS: no, not really. I don't recall...

ST: We heard something about it, but it didn't bother me.

MS: I know the younger generation, they heard of people that were answering "no-no," instead of "yes-yes." And I think the younger generation kind of looked upon them as being traitors. They couldn't understand why they would answer that way. They did get sent to Tule Lake. But much later in life, you look back at it and say, well, they were pretty brave to do what they did, you know, to say "no-no."

KL: Did you guys have friends who went to Tule Lake?

MS: We have one relative, the Sako family.

ST: Yeah?

MS: Yeah, our sister-in-law's... they actually lived in our block, but their family did go to Tule Lake, and they went to Japan. But they had no boys in the family.

KL: What were goodbyes like as they left for Tule Lake? Did you mark the occasion in any way?

MS: No. We weren't close enough to know. I kind of found out after the fact that they had gone to Japan. So they're the only ones that I know.

KL: Did you have any classmates that... or do you remember anyone leaving for Tule Lake?

ST: Like I say, I was a little too young. It was all settled before I got up there.

KL: Yeah, and no friends who left or anything, so that didn't really affect you.

LP: Were there any riots or protesting or anything at Topaz about the questionnaire?

ST: I heard about it in, I guess, Tule Lake, but I don't recall anything in Topaz.

LP: Was there confusion over what was, what the questionnaire was going to be used for besides for recruiting for the service?

MS: Undoubtedly, yeah. See, all those things were discussed at those meetings that we didn't attend.

ST: No.

MS: And they must have had quite a few thoughts about it, because they had quite a few meetings, you know.

LP: Did your dad go to the meetings?

MS: No. And I think part of that was because he was partially deaf also.

ST: Oh, yeah.

LP: I was actually gonna ask, too, so earlier you mentioned the strokes that your father had. What was the impact on his health after that? Just thinking, you know, some people have trouble speaking or different things after the stroke. So what was the impact on him after that, the real bad one?

MS: He went through phases where he was partially paralyzed, and he couldn't speak.

ST: But my mother brought him back to health, got him walking again and talking again.

MS: She had this Japanese medical reference book, and she'd go through that and come up with all these things. And one of the treatments in Japan is, they call it yaito, they put this little thing on and --

ST: Well, she knew acupuncture. I don't know how she learned all these things.

MS: Yeah, well, see, that's the same pressure points. You put these little things on, and you light it, and you actually let it burn. But then she would consult her medical book, and he knew where to place these things. [Laughs]

ST: And she would massage... oh, yeah, for a long time.

KL: Did she treat other people with yaito or anything?

MS: No.

ST: The family.

LP: What was the scenario of that one major stroke? Did someone find him, or do you know in what situation the stroke occurred?

MS: I'm not sure, I don't remember. We probably weren't home enough to know.

ST: Oh, yeah.

MS: Later on the strokes were a lot more severe, so he couldn't walk.

LP: Earlier you mentioned working in the mess hall, and I was just curious, one of the things that I hear about at Tule Lake sometimes is food missing or people kind of giving other people food in exchange for things. And I was just curious if --

ST: I never heard of such a thing.

LP: Oh, okay. Figured I'd ask. And it sounds like you don't, there's no copy of the letter to Roosevelt in your family's collection anymore, right?

MS: No. Tracey said that Andrew gave her some of the...

ST: Yeah?

MS: Yeah.

KL: If you ever find any of that, or if you ever do write to the National Archives and you want to share what they send to you, that would be really wonderful to have a copy of. It's absolutely your decision, of course, but it could be really helpful to the Topaz Museum, too, as they're trying to address some of what people's lives were like and the issues they grappled with in that time.

MS: Have you heard of anybody else having written to the President?

KL: One lady I talked to wrote to Secretary of the Interior, her mom did, yeah, Harold Ickes. And I think she got a response, too, and I don't think Irene has it. But that person, that same person, her file at the National Archives is pretty thick, and there was communication about her trying to regain property after they left. They were in Minidoka, so there's a lot about a sewing machine that she needed back for income, and there was actually a lot in it, so it could be revealing. You mentioned in that conversation between your mom and the brother who was kind of the spokesperson for the others, that he said he didn't... there was nothing for him in Japan, he had no experience with Japan. And it made me wonder if your parents or your mother had an interest in returning to Japan, if that was part of their thinking at all, or what you perceived or what you know about that.

MS: I don't think so. I have no idea.

ST: I kind of kick myself for not taking her back, though.

MS: Yeah, you know, I thought of that, too, why didn't we, when she was able to, let her go back and see her?

KL: So neither of them ever visited?

MS: No. Yeah, that's kind of a shame that we didn't do that.