Densho Digital Archive - George Izumi Interview (denshovh-igeorge-01-0010)

<Begin Segment 10>

JA: What... tell me about the "loyalty questions" that came into play.

GI: Well, the loyalty question, it never occurred to me to answer that question "no-no." I think the... because that question came up regarding the draft, draft... drafting all the young people into the army. And I really think that a lot of them declared "no-no" because they just didn't want to go into the army, or they were bitter about the evacuation. So I think there's two categories, they're either bitter about the war or they're bitter against the government. They didn't want to go into the army. I really think that's because even when I'm thinking back about all the "no-no boys" even during the height of its turmoil, I mean, you -- I'm sure that no one can tell me what good did they do by protesting "no-no," except that most of 'em went back to Japan. And they, after the war they were glad to get back to this country, so you tell me, you know, they were only trying to evade the, the draft.

JA: But those questions weren't limited to just people who were eligible for the draft.

GI: No, they weren't, they were for all the people, even for the older generation.

JA: What, what were the two questions?

GI: I don't know. I think whether we were loyal to the United States, that was one of the questions, that's easy to, loyal to the United States, and I think that if they say no, I think that, that was one of the questions. If they said no, you belong in the "no-no" category.

JA: Were those questions more difficult for the Issei to answer, since they hadn't been born here in the first place?

GI: I really don't know; I really can't say. I can't speak for most of the Issei because I think most of the majority of the Isseis had it made in camp. You know, they didn't have to worry about, about tomorrow. Everything was all taken care for them. Like I said, I think most of 'em enjoyed the vacation. And the successful ones didn't because they were the people that were, they were successful in business before the war and they had to leave all that to go into camp, so I don't blame them.

JA: In addition to the "no-nos," though, there were a lot of young men who wanted to be in the draft or wanted to serve, weren't there?

GI: Oh, yeah, there were quite a few of them. There was only about nine or ten of us in the first draft when went to camp. And I didn't, I didn't... I didn't hear anybody complain about being sent, sent to the army from camp in my group. I think, I think we just looked forward to it. It was another, another adventure. Because we were sent to Fort Douglas in Utah, and from there we went to, I was stationed in Camp Hood, Texas.