Densho Digital Archive - George Matsumoto Interview (denshovh-mgeorge

<Begin Segment 24>

KP: Well, let's talk about that, the "loyalty questionnaire." Do you remember when that came around?

GM: Oh, yeah, that was '43, somewhere around there.

KP: And what was, what was the discussion going on in camp at that time?

GM: See, it was kind of a shocker because the army was gonna take over after they had the riots and things, so WRA was kind of in a quandary. Do they want to just let the army take over or get the people to enlist? Because they, after a while, after Midway the threat about U.S. being invaded kind of diminished and they decided that they would use Nisei soldiers, induct them. So a lot of people, they started to look into that and they said that, "Well, we're gonna have a loyalty oath to screen out the loyals from the disloyal." We were all disloyals to begin with, but some of 'em are more loyal than others, I guess. So they had a question of, some twenty-eight questions, and most of 'em was "Where did you live?" and "What did you do?" "What was your education?" Trivial things. But twenty-seven said, "Will you be willing to serve in United States Army?" And a lot of people said "What for? You stuck us in this camp; why should I go fight?" And the other one said, "Would you disavow loyalty to the emperor of Japan?" And when they asked me I said, "Well, if you left me alone I would've gladly gone in the army and been drafted, well fine. And then as far as disavow loyalty to the emperor, I never had any connection with him. Why should I... that's an insult. I refuse to answer." So the interviewer said "no," put down "no." And as far as a qualified answer for enlisting in the army, he wrote down "no" because to him it was either yes or no. No, black or white, that's it.

KP: So these questions were administered by...

GM: Civilians.

KP: And how did, how did that work? Do you remember the day you went in to have the questions?

GM: I have a general date, but I don't recall the exact date.

KP: But you went in, how, could you walk us through going in and doing that? Or do you remember?

GM: Well, you were supposed to register. They told us everybody had to register, so we just registered and then we were called for an interview. And my, my brother was on the other side. He said "yes-yes." So the interview --

KP: Which brother was this?

GM: Hideo. The other ones were too young. They weren't subject to question. But he said that no way was he going to Japan. Everybody thought that once you get in that category, "no-no," that you'd get thrown out of, out of that United States, so that's what everybody expected.

KP: Did you try to argue with the interviewer at all?

GM: He, he was very calm and didn't say anything, didn't give me any flak. Just took down the, my responses and that's it. Said goodbye.

KP: How long did it take to administer all those questions to the whole camp? Do you have any idea?

GM: No.

KP: Did you know the questions were coming? Did you...

GM: Well, we heard that, rumors that it was either that or the army taking over and head of the WRA didn't want that, so he, they used the army screening, but it said "request for leave," so a lot of people thought they were gonna get thrown out of camp if they refused to register. It got so that they said, "Well, where will we go?" And they got word that a lot of people that had left, that people were against having Japanese, lot of students, they were accepted for one school and then when they went to school there they were, they were thrown out. Said we don't, it happened to Joe Nagano. He was accepted for a while from one and then, then the people around him said, "No, we don't want any Japs around," so he went to another one. He went to Chicago Institute of Technology.