Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Susumu Yenokida Interview
Narrator: Susumu Yenokida
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Denver, Colorado
Date: July 5, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-ysusumu-01-0020

<Begin Segment 20>

RP: I wanted to ask you, since you were, you went through the camp experience, how did you feel about receiving an apology and a check from, from the government of the United States in, I don't know, in the 1988 or 1990. I don't know when the checks went out, but what was your, what was your mindset or your thoughts about getting those two items? Did you have any strong emotions about that?

SY: Not very strong, strong emotions. But we were happy that we were equal to all the other people. Until then, we had our doubts. You know what I mean? Because of the fact that we had served in prison. And during that period I had also had a draft notice to Sacramento and I did appear.

RP: You did?

SY: I went and I failed the physical then.

RP: Oh, you did?

SY: Yeah.

RP: Do you remember what year that was?

SY: I can't remember. I think somewhere close to 1954, yeah.

RP: Oh, just around the time that the Korean War was winding down.

SY: Right, exactly.

RP: Uh-huh. So you went to this physical and you...

SY: I failed the physical.

RP: You failed it. Oh.

SY: Could you believe that?

RP: You just were...

SY: I couldn't believe that I failed that physical. They told me I was too nervous. I'm as... just like I am now. I figure. [Laughs]

RP: You're more nervous here, huh? So physically and mentally, you just weren't cut out to serve in the military.

SY: I guess.

RP: But you obviously have a strong understanding for people who do choose to oppose military service on grounds of conscience. Like this gentleman, Lieutenant Ehren Watada, this Japanese American --

SY: Oh, Hawaii.

RP: -- who refused to go to Iraq.

SY: Well, it's just that it's... you know, I can't persuade anybody. It's just his own conscience that tells him that he's not gonna do this or you can't go. It's up to the... entirely up to the individual, really, because that's what happened to me.

RP: Right. So, yeah, I mean, between what happened to your father, what happened to the family in going to, to camp, and then your mother coming down with her asthma problems, all these were triggered by the circumstances were put in place by the government, with the executive order.

SY: Exactly. True, very true.

RP: Well you can't... I mean, your father passed away and you know, but the humiliation of having to sort of grovel for permits and that type of thing is, you know, that wouldn't have normally happened. So wartime had a tremendous impact on your family.

SY: Very definitely. Very definitely, yeah.

RP: And in another situation you probably would have served? I mean, you know, answered a draft notice like you did in Sacramento. So...

SY: Right.

[Interruption]

RP: Okay Sus, well, is there any other stories or items that you might want to add to our interview before we conclude?

SY: Well, it's just that I figure whatever I'd done, it was my own conscience. That nobody ever persuaded me to say anything or to do anything. It was my own decision. That I did this on my own and certainly I probably would have been better off if I had went to the army like some of my friends says, you know, "If you had gone to the army you wouldn't have to do this or you wouldn't have to do that. You could have got a free education out of it and everything." But that was not my thought. It was just that we were, we were treated not right, and that's what I was refraining to.

RP: Okay. Sus, on behalf of the National Park Service and Kirk and myself, we want to thank you so much for, for pouring your heart out today. Thank you.

SY: Thank you very much.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.