Densho Digital Archive - Isao Kikuchi Interview (denshovh-kisao-01-0020)

<Begin Segment 20>

RP: Well the, again, the other version of this story that you shared is that Mr. Ueno --

IK: That's the cook?

RP: He's the cook. Yeah, he was involved with the mess halls and he, he set up a union for the mess hall workers, which wasn't very popular with the administrators. But he, he accused certain administrators of taking the sugar.

IK: They, they were the ones that could only do it.

RP: Right, they took the sugar, according to Harry, and sold it on the black market. That was, that's one of the other versions of that. So it wasn't, it wasn't him, but he was accusing other people, and because of that, those accusations, it was thought that the administration was trying to get back at him for the accusations, so they fingered him in the beating of this man, Fred Tayama.

IK: Hey, that's a fairy tale.

RP: [Laughs]

IK: It... well, that, that's typical, though. 'Cause he had the power.

RP: Right, and actually, according to his memoirs or accounts, the FBI did come in and investigate his charges, you know that --

IK: And whose side were they on?

RP: Well...

IK: There's no question about that.

RP: Nobody, no administrators were picked up or jailed or accused of anything officially, so there's your answer to the question.

IK: That's a surprise, isn't it?

RP: Well, not to me or not to you. So tell us a little bit about what was the camp like in the days and weeks after the riot?

IK: That's when the military, the... what do you call it? When they start patrolling?

RP: How long were the jeeps in, in camp? Do you remember?

IK: I don't know. I didn't pay any attention to 'em, or I, my, our friends just weren't, weren't interested in that stuff, 'cause it had nothing to do with us, really. So couldn't be anything they did any further than put a fence around us, and what, what good was the patrolling and the Jeeps in the, inside the camp? It's ridiculous, ignorant. That's just stupid. And, 'cause... well, I knew nothing was gonna happen, 'cause we don't do that, and it was... it sort of was dumb. That's what we thought, and we sort of all had a distaste for it, or disrespect for them, 'cause we were getting no respect, and it's, they were dumb. That's all. That's what I thought, anyway, and our friends, my friends. We... no, it's just nothing to do with politics. I mean, we didn't. They had it all.