Densho Digital Archive - Taketora Jim Tanaka Interview (denshovh-ttaketora-01-0016)

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KP: All right, we're on tape two of our interview with Jim Tanaka. And we are in Tule Lake. Any other stories come up about Tule Lake for you, memories?

TT: Only thing I remember is that we had, you know that in camp, they used to go to that, there used to be lava bed over there, cinder. I remember we used to cut school and go over there, get on the truck and haul those cinder (...), make roads for the camp, things like that. But school, that's one thing I regret, which was bad, but you used to cut school and all that. That's one thing I (regretted). But that's why, so what little education I had in camp, after I went to serve and come back, that's why I went to, on the GI bill, I went to trade school and finished my high school education over there. Thank goodness for the GI bill. If it weren't for that, I don't know.

KP: Who was your best friend in Tule Lake?

TT: Well, that's pretty hard to say because I had quite a few. Fortunately, we were pretty lucky. We got our neighbor and few of our friends were from our own neighborhood, so it wasn't too bad, we had quite a few. Lot from the Oak Park area. So it wasn't too bad. It was like, say you come from, when they had segregation, we went from Tule Lake to Topaz, Utah. See, Topaz, Utah, was mostly Bay Area people, and we didn't know nobody. But you know, being in the same situation, you get to know, you know. We had a fellow from, family from San Lorenzo over there, we got good friends with. So after the war ended and the camp closed, I was overseas at that time, but my family went out to, they closed the camp, they went to, I think it was Provo, Utah. And the friends that they made in camp, they said they found a job and a place to stay for my dad and my family, so they came, that's how they got back to California. In that, and sent there, our people would help the people that come back, they had a property or land, they would call their friends back. That's how we got by, we helped each other come back. But like when we came back, converted horse barn, housing was pretty scarce, so we stayed in a converted horse barn and places, things like that. But usually was helping each other out. But otherwise, like I said, I go around to school and talk to kids, and the student said, "I think Japanese American was the first homeless." Because when they closed the camp, they said, "Okay, you're free to go, we'll give you twenty-five dollars and a bus or train ticket. You're free to go." Now, where the hell would you go? But then again, you look at it this way. With that, they were in camp, so they went to Chicago, went back east, lot of 'em got to be professional people. They went to school, colleges and university, they got to be professional people.

KP: What was your, in Tule Lake, what were your brothers and sisters doing? Going to school...

TT: Yeah.

KP: Did any of them work?

TT: No, I don't think, I think we were all going to school at that time.

KP: So the "loyalty questionnaire" comes around, they decide to make Tule Lake a segregation center, and it sounds like, you said that you didn't know anybody in Topaz, it sounds like some of your friends stayed in Tule Lake.

TT: Quite a few did. It all depended, like I said, because you're seventeen years old, don't forget now, you signed that "loyalty questionnaire," you're renouncing your citizenship, and heck, you're seventeen years old, pretty rough.

KP: So a lot of it had to do with what your parents wanted to you to do.

TT: Yeah. See, like our parents said no, we'd go out...

KP: Did you talk about that with any of your friends, or was it something the families decided?

TT: Just the families. But you know, we said, well, the main thing is you meet a stranger, first thing you ask is what camp he was in. So then the, our conversation would also go before the camp and after the camp. That's a common question, "What camp were you in?" But the most, weather-wise, the camp was, I think it was Amache, Colorado, the weather was more mild. The coldest one was Heart Mountain. So all the camps were hot, cold, dusty.