Densho Digital Archive - Roy Murakami Interview (denshovh-mroy

<Begin Segment 15>

RP: But, but you, you had a shortwave radio that was...

RM: They weren't regular radios at that time. So it was, there was a shortwave, part of it they take out. Most all radios at that time had the shortwave.

RP: So you had to turn that in to the police department or...

RM: No.

RP: What did you do with it?

RM: Turned it on... yeah, we turned it in. That's right. They took it and turned it in.

KP: Confiscated it.

RP: Did the FBI come to your house?

RM: I don't remember that part. That might have been. They did come to Manzanar once, I know.

RP: They did?

RM: Yeah.

RP: They talked to your dad or...

RM: No, they want to talk him. And showed a picture and says, "I want, we want to see this man." But that time Ralph Merritt, P. Merritt, says, "No, you can't take him." Because he's, he's the one doing the thing here, doing things.

RP: Who was that man? Was that your...

RM: Ralph P. Merritt.

RP: No, the gentleman that...

RM: Oh, I don't know. He was the FBI or something like that.

RP: But they wanted to take...

RM: See him and take him I guess or something like that. It's later. Maybe they missed him. I don't know. [Laughs]

KP: Who, who did they want to take? Your father or...

RM: Yeah.

KP: Why, do you have any idea?

RM: Well, because the judo.

KP: Oh, because as an instructor...

RM: Yeah.

RP: As an instructor. Is that correct or...

RM: What?

RP: We asked you why they wanted to take him.

RM: Train, no, no. It was, see he was, the connections to Japan again.

RP: Oh, so...

RM: And like the culture of Japan is, was the main idea they were doing... if you have culture of Japan...

RP: So he was under suspicion for nothing.

RM: Yeah, yeah. They just wanted to...

RP: They wanted to question him or maybe take him away.

KP: So he escaped the FBI out of camp. And when he got into camp they would try to find him.

RP: Wow.

RM: He was lucky. He says so.

RP: Uh-huh. Do you think maybe he has connections with Sergil and LAPD might have helped him escape?

RM: No, Sergil maybe. But they, it was his friend, FBI guy, I don't remember his name but...

RP: We'll have to find out who that is.

RM: And another one. There was another one, person that I don't know how, how what, how it influenced he had with the... gee, I don't remember his name now. But when they went to the check in at Van Nuys, Van Nuys police department, take the stuff in and stuff, and there was a, he's the Japanese-born citizen. I mean, he was adopted by a Caucasian family. I forget. He did, did a lot of that... But I don't remember his name. I keep forgetting.

RP: Uh-huh.

RM: Maybe the JACL or something like that will know about it.

RP: Might have been, yeah. Uh-huh. There was an interesting story in this book about your father, that when Caucasian students came to his nursery, that they, they would bow to him because he was again a sensei. Just like they would in the dojo.

RM: Uh-huh, yeah.

RP: [Laughs] And that story about Sergil bowing...

RM: Yeah.

RP: ...kind of made me think of that. What do you recall about the time before you went to camp and what was, what was the feeling like in your family when you heard that you would have to go to camp?

RM: Oh, we was all scared, I guess. Because nothing else like that ever happened to us. And this was a time when everybody got, had to get together, go. So they gave us a day. Down in Burbank... I think it was Olive Street, one of those, we all got together and they took us on the buses.