Densho Digital Archive - Osamu Mori Interview (denshovh-mosamu-01-0016)

<Begin Segment 16>

RP: Tule Lake was established as a segregation center for all the "no-no" people from all the camps so they had a lot of folks who were very outspoken activist, you know, had quote "caused trouble" in some of the other camps, and Tule Lake had its own share of issues and factions. Do you recall any of that especially a young group called the Hoshidan?

OM: I'm not too sure about Hoshidan but, you know, the two people, I think there were actually three people, I guess there was a person called Reverend Kai, who was a Buddhist minister who was supposed to be, I don't know, brains or whatever. And then there was a guy by the name of Tanaka who was also another guy and then the third guy was, he was supposedly be the strong arm or the physical guy. Two of the guys were in our block, okay, 27, they looked like ordinary people. Sure they might have had different philosophical differences between camp administrators and what they thought, you know. People were running around doing exercise, four o'clock in the morning, "Wasshoi, wasshoi," and all that. I did that. I don't think I believed in something extraordinary by doing that, you know, in fact I was telling you about this flower... my neighbor, he was one of the young guys that were, I guess in this, today terminology you would say, he was a troublemaker or strong arm guy or whatever. But when I saw him, it was just like old times, you know, he was a good friend of mine, you know. He never caused me any trouble, he was doing his thing, I don't know what group he was with or whatever but what is this Hoshidan you're talking about, I don't really don't know?

RP: It was a group of young men who were preparing themselves to return to Japan, taking on the culture, the headbands with the rising sun and --

OM: Well, they must have been the guys that were running around four o'clock in the morning. Because, you know when the sun came up, you faced east and you bowed, well, we did that. I don't think I was more Japanese because of that but I'm sure these guys... they're the same guys that you're talking about. This flower guy, he was one of the strong arm boys, but as far as friendship goes, he was the same guy. If he was after some guy and we told him, "Hey, he's a friend of ours," okay, that's it, you know. So I don't think he was any... because I'm sure he didn't go back either, he didn't back to Japan. All the guys that I knew of, the two guys that were in our block, one guy went back but the other guy didn't go back. Most of them were out of camp before any of us, you know. They knew what was up and they didn't bother to go back. The ones that went back really had strong convictions and they weren't activists, they were just, I don't know what... like my friend, his family went back, you know, he's more American than anybody that I know of. He hardly knows any Japanese, and yet his father went back, so he went back.