<Begin Segment 18>

JC: If you can imagine -- I'm putting you into a funny place, but if you can imagine that there was another eviction order today -- how do you imagine you might react or your kids would react?

SN: I think number one, the number one, much order so that we have our political connections, so I don't worry about those things, but that was the number one fault. I mean, if the war took place let's say four years later where the Niseis were older now, you see, could have gone to the, yelled at the city council about taking away the license. We could yell at the people and had more contact with white people, all right. It would have been different, but we were all too young when it happened. Because we were American citizens, you know. I think that had a lot to do, if we were four to six years older, you know. We were mostly teenagers, okay, at that time, teenagers or less, and that would have made a big difference. You can be, did they incarcerate the Germans and Italians, no. Only rabble rousing Italians were put into camp. But that is one big, I always believe that that today, something like that would never happen against the Japanese Americans because we are too well entrenched here and so on. That would be, that would be just, it would be and so on. Okay. We have today the Arab, the Arab situation where they want to, there was talk at the very early time that they were going to incarcerate all the Arabs in the city, anybody who was an Arab. Of course, they got lots of Arabs who are in very influential positions that would never let that happen because after all Mr. Atiyeh is 100 percent Arab.

JC: Do you imagine the Japanese American community coming to the defense of the Arabic community if something like that would happen?

SN: Oh, yeah. But to incarcerate all the Arabs, it's just, which I know it wouldn't happen.

JC: So you're talking, you spoke about having a voice, and it seems right that the voice got lost. The older generation didn't have a voice yet, and the younger generation wasn't ready to --

SN: Right, right, exactly. Very few minority, not minority, very few Japanese Americans were old enough to make a big protest out of it. Min Yasui was one that did, and he is, of course, very well-known for what he did. The word is not just brave, but he was a kind of person that was smart, intelligent, knew what he was going to do, knew what the consequences were. He went there to defend himself. I really think that there was, we should have been a -- there should have been a much larger group of grown Niseis that would, you know, would be no evacuation whatsoever. Of course, everybody says what happened in Hawaii. Well, it's so obvious. The army depended so much on the Japanese labor because otherwise, if you would incarcerate everybody in Hawaii, the whole economy will collapse, and they had to have that economy to keep the army going and so on. That made the big difference. I think also, you see, the number of volunteers of 442nd came from areas, the larger numbers. The 442nd came mainly from areas where the Niseis were more integrated into the community. And that's why very high percentage in Portland, very high percentage in Seattle area, lower percentage down in Los Angeles on percentage base of numbers.

JC: And they were a squadron? The 442nd was a squadron or a --

SN: It was a regiment, 442nd regiment and completely volunteer group and a lot of more people from Hawaii. Of course, a lot came from Hawaii. But I'm saying, on the mainland, the areas where, so, up north, the Niseis were much more, getting much more integrated with, because smaller population and so on in the economy. That's what's very interesting. The biggest group came from the Seattle area, Portland was second.

JC: Did you ever have to take the "loyalty oath"?

SN: No.

JC: Who had to take that and who didn't?

SN: The ones who were in the camp.

JC: Only those in the camp?

SN: Yeah.

JC: What's the logic of that? I don't understand that.

SN: Well, you see, they have this, I don't know. Somebody wanted to make sure that they had all "loyal" people in the camp and to take out the ones who were "disloyal," and they were sent to Tule Lake, the hardcore people.

JC: So could you have been a "disloyal" American in Salt Lake City and gotten away with it?

SN: Yeah, I think so because they didn't come and make you take the loyalty.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.