Densho Digital Archive - George Matsumoto Interview (denshovh-mgeorge

<Begin Segment 25>

KP: So what was it, you were, at this time when the "loyalty questionnaire" came around, you were living in an apartment, a kind of a bachelor apartment with your brother, right?

GM: Yeah, my brother. Yeah.

KP: Yeah, and what, since you were a "No-no" and he was a "Yes-yes," were you guys...

GM: No, that was a different brother.

KP: Okay, that was a younger one. I mean, in your family, what was the discussion? Was there discussion?

GM: Well, my father said that he was tired of the United States and he was going to go to Japan and I was supposed to go ahead -- I was going, I was scheduled to go to Tule Lake anyway, so he said my two brothers, younger brothers and I, the three of us should go. And the reason they didn't go is 'cause my mother was expecting our youngest brother, so after he was born there was no talk about them coming up to Tule Lake. And I used to ask the people in Tule Lake, I'd say, "Hey, when my mother and father coming up?" They said, "No, you guys go back to Manzanar." They were kind of reluctant to have them come up and I couldn't figure it out, and then later I started thinking that maybe it was because of my brother said "yes-yes" and my father, he was there. They changed their questionnaire to, "will you abide by the, the laws," or something. If they had asked me the same thing I would've said yes, but he never made any attempt to, to join us. I couldn't figure out why.

KP: So it was you and younger two brothers?

GM: Two brothers, but since they were minors they were free to leave. So right after the war I sent 'em back, sent 'em out.

KP: So what was that like, going to Tule Lake?

GM: Tule Lake? Well, it was kind of an experience because --

KP: First of all, how did you get there?

GM: Train. We took trucks to Lone Pine and we got in train, but to get to Tule Lake they had to go to the other side of the mountains, so we had to go all the way to Barstow. And from Barstow we went to Tule Lake.

KP: What time of year was this? Do you remember?

GM: February.

KP: What was the weather like? Do you remember that?

GM: Well, it was not that cold. It was crisp and I worked on the troop train going there. That's in my book.