Densho Digital Archive - Isao Kikuchi Interview (denshovh-kisao-01-0018)

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RP: Was there any discussion or did you hear anything about, in the story, the other kind of version of the story is that, that this gentleman, who is the cook, his name was Harry Ueno, and he was allegedly one of the people, one of six people who beat up a JACL leader in camp --

IK: Okay, with that were the case, were the same, my boys, the Kibeis, on the line making all the noise, because whoever was in that group was the group that was, started looking for, for... what's the...

RP: Fred Tayama.

IK: Yeah, Tanaka. There was a Tanaka in there also.

RP: There was a Tanaka also. The original guy who was beat up was Fred Tayama and he was, he went to the hospital because of his injuries --

IK: Oh, there were...

RP: -- and there was a group that went to the hospital to find him.

IK: Okay, that was, that was the same Kibeis, and evidently they were the only ones that made, they were making all the noise, because the Niseis that I knew were just listening. And they, after the shooting this group would have been organized, or they were a group, and that was the only group I knew that was together. And they gathered and they yelled something about Tanaka I believe it was, and so I just, I... all of us followed the group, just out of curiosity or whatever, and I heard Tanaka and somebody else, I've forgotten, and they were headed for the hospital. That's... then my father, being the head of the dentistry, he was, we lived right next door.

RP: To the hospital?

IK: Of the hospital, which is Block 36, which I joined him then later. But the, this group had started heading for the Tanaka's, wherever he lived, so we just followed the group, behind as I knew a whole bunch of Niseis, so I went along with 'em. And I would hear the names, and then I heard, "Kikuchi," because of my mother. She was quite prominent in the camp, giving advice to a lot of people, so know I knew what, something was gonna happen. So I ran home and talked to, told my parents to stay inside and, "Don't turn your lights on." So I grabbed my bat and headed outside and ran around the group and moved up behind the leaders, and they, those guys were the guys that I had the run-in with, and so I figured, okay, "You turn to my door and I'm gonna break your head open." I just knew that, and I was... well, they got right to the door and to the steps, and I moved in real, right next to him and they suddenly turned and went away, 'cause it was dark and I don't know for, what, for what. Then they went to the hospital entrance, making a big noise and I walked right next to the soldier with a gun, and he, we were rubbing shoulders with each other. He didn't do anything, and these Kibeis kept talkin' about, or yelling, and I think they said they spirited him out earlier. I don't really know, but that was the word, and so that, that sort of lost the energy, and I think that's when the gang group gave it up, 'cause he was no longer there and they don't, no word of where he went.

So now we, somebody yelled and said let's gather, so we gathered in the Block 36 kitchen, and they started having a argument about things, the Kibeis and... I don't, didn't know the guy that talked for the other side and... "What are you guys... calm down," and trying to hold them down. And luckily, for some reason the Niseis sort of gently moved towards each other while they're talking, and so we're all looking at each other and passing messages, you might say. And with our heads we nodded towards the, the Kibei, and they were gonna get killed, I think, starting that thing, 'cause I still had my bat and the other guys had bats also. They were... and the, one side was, "Hey, calm down. This is no time to do any of this stuff," and that was a Nisei, older guy to boot. And the Kibeis had tried, but they just lost. I don't know what they said. I was just waiting for the explosion 'cause you don't have to have words for that. So we would take, take our energy towards these guys. Then on, after that the army drew in martial law I think it was called, so you couldn't walk around the camp with more than one fellow, friend. No gatherings more than two. And the jeeps drove through with machine guns on their things and drove through. All we could think was, oh, those dummies. If we wanted them we could have 'em. We wondered why... it, and it's kind of a joke, 'cause I knew darn well we could break that whole camp open if we wanted to. If we had any, if our skin was any other color we probably would've, but it's useless. So I don't think I recall of anything exciting happening... well, except the, our friends and I decided, "Let's make a break for camp and see if we can get by the searchlights and such as they were sweeping over the..."

RP: Was that just after the riot or...

IK: Yes.

RP: How soon after?

IK: That's, I don't know how soon after, but the lights were sweeping the camp thereafter. And that's when we... gonna escape the camp, and so it's, we went... well, it was a game. We had something, we need to have something to do, so we start running, timing with the searchlights and jumping under weeds and stuff like that. Then I think there was bare ground for about twenty-five yards or so between the barrack and the barbed wire where the towers were. So that was kinda fun and exciting. We made it up to, to the, under the tower, went under the camp fence and the barbed wire there, and then got to under the tower, which was, if we were gonna escape we were gonna take the tower. We got there and leaning on the thing and says, "Well, what do we do now? Ah, let's go back." Because living on the land I could do, but none of the others could, or the other two could not, and I says, "Hey, living on the land of the... the food on the mountains up there is no fun. Let's go back." So we skinned, timed the lights and ran back, went back in and played pinochle. So it's just as exciting now as escaping.