Densho Digital Archive - John Tomita Interview (denshovh-tjohn

<Begin Segment 20>

RP: The other question is in 1944 the government allowed Japanese Americans to renounce their citizenship and many people did that at Tule Lake.

JT: Yes.

KP: Do you remember that or were you affected at all, coerced in any way to do that?

JT: Yeah, somehow I told people who came to ask me, I said, "Don't do anything. Don't do anything." And, so I didn't do anything. And my, a lot of the Nisei were influenced by the, their parents. And they pushed their... but my father never raised that question with me. And I felt that I'm not gonna. I'm an American. So, as far as that... the funny part is that I tried to serve in the, in the American forces. Before the war, before the war started, when I was going to school, my classmate were tellin' me that they, they volunteered because the army will leave them alone until they finish their school. So, I, the summer before the war started I tried to do that too because my friends said they could get a, I could get away from the service. So I... and well, when I went to the recruiting office in Sacramento, they told me out flat that they're not taking any "Japs" in the service. They told... they said, "You Japs are not..." And that was in summer before the war started. They already knew that they, they were gonna be fighting. So, I told my dad about it and my dad was a good fan of the county assessor. He was... Milo, Milo Dye, Milo... what was his... anyway, he was, in fact, later on I found out he was the head of the recruiting of, oh the people who sign up for, have to sign up for the army?

KP: Draft registration?

JT: Draft... not draft board...

KP: Selective Service?

JT: Huh?

KP: Selective Service?

JT: Selective Service. Yeah. He was the local leader. I, we didn't, I didn't... my dad said, well, he's influential so I went to Mr. Dye to say, I told him that they won't let me join the service. Friends of mine, well, the Caucasians and, and school, they get to sign up. And so he wrote me a nice letter and he knew people in the service, Major Armstrong. Yeah, Major Armstrong. And so I went to see Major Armstrong. He, I found out that he was the head of the Selective Service in northern California. And so I went to see him and they said, yeah, oh yeah. Then, so he sent me a nice letter saying that, that since I'm not of draft age that I can't say anything. He's in charge of the Selective Service but if you're not in that age bracket you can't do anything. So, I couldn't get in.

KP: You kind of fell through the cracks.

JT: Yeah, right. So, when I went into camp, Dye, Milo, I mean, Dye, Mr. Dye, he, he wrote me a letter that they're gonna reclassify the, the Japanese. That we're in camp. So, I wrote back to him. "Gee, Mr. Dye, I tried to volunteer back in August and they said they, they won't, they're not gonna accept me. And even Armstrong couldn't help me get, get into service." And, I said, "What would you do if you were in my shoes after you've been knocked down and kicked to the ground? What would you do?" And, and I didn't say what I was gonna do, but I wrote that to him. and by golly, they reclassified me and they, they gave me something, I think 4-F or something, "undesirable alien." Yeah. So, I had that classification, 4-F. 4-F.

KP: 4-C?

JT: 4-C or 4-F, I forgot.

KP: 4-Fs, F is physical. 4-C was the "undesirable alien."

JT: Oh, 4-C. Anyway, I was 4-C at, when I first registered. And then Dye sent me another letter about a year later. He said they gonna reclassify again. I said, "Well, do, I told him, do whatever you want." [Laughs] And I let it go there. And then, before I came out of the camp, he said, I got a reclassification of 1-A. But, I never got called. Yeah. I don't know whether Mr. Dye is still alive. Oh yeah, there's another person. Judge Hamilton. He was my... Judge Hamilton was a good friend of my dad. He, they used to come from the back door and get the drink see. So they were good friends.

[Interruption]

KP: Okay, let's kind of... you said you also worked, when you were there working the survey, you worked with surveying the high school when it was laid out.

JT: Huh?

KP: The high school at Tule Lake?

JT: Yeah, yeah, I...

KP: Who did you work with for that? What was...

JT: Well, I was the man in charge of, of the survey section. And, that's where I met the, Yamaichi. Yeah, the guy from San Jose or someplace, yeah, I think. I still remember his name. Because, he was very, I thought he was a real sociable guy. I mean, he was one of the carpenter at the school, building of that high school.