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SG: So after you were discharged honorably, what happened after that?
GA: Well naturally, I did not go in then, and they just, let's see, that was '43. I went out, I left the camp, got my okay, release from the FBI and went to Dayton, Ohio, to work, to seek work, and I got a job in a battery manufacturing company in Dayton, Ohio.
SG: So where were your, when you were released, where were your parents?
GA: They were still in the internment camp, Minidoka relocation camp.
SG: So when you heard about the relocation efforts, you were in the military; is that right?
GA: No, I was also interned. I was also interned in May of 1943, '42 or '43. Let's see... let's see now, war started in '41, I was released in '42, and then I went to camp in May of '42. In September of '42, I was taken, we were all sent to Minidoka camp, so it was in May of 1943 that I left Minidoka to go to Dayton, Ohio.
SG: So you were working in your parents' grocery store when they started removing everyone?
GA: Uh-huh.
SG: How did you, what was going through the family, your family at that time when you first heard of the evacuation orders?
GA: What was the question again?
SG: How did your family respond to the evacuation orders?
GA: Oh, naturally, they didn't like it. They were opposed to it but what can you do? You had to go. By the way, when the war started in December of '41, in February of '42, the same month that I was released from the army, my father was taken by the FBI because he was a member of some nationalistic society for Japan. The group was called Sokoukai I think it was. And because he was a member of that, he was taken and put into an Immigration and Naturalization detention camp, and so he was separate. He was taken separately from the family. The family was taken in May of 1942 to the camp.
SG: How long was your father in detention for?
GA: Oh, he was there from February 1942 'til the spring of '44, yeah, '44, he was released. He was released and then came back to join my mother in Minidoka assembly center, Minidoka relocation camp.
SG: Were you able to see your father during those two years?
GA: No. I went to visit him but that was all.
SG: Did he say, what did he say to you when you went to visit your father?
GA: Naturally, he was glad to see me. I can't remember whatever, what else he said. We were always trying to get him out because he had done nothing, but the immigration office wouldn't listen to us. But he was released in about February of '44, '44.
SG: Did he ever complain about how he was being treated or --
GA: No, no. They were treated decently I'm sure.
SG: When, did he request anything for you to bring to him?
GA: No, no. He didn't need anything.
SG: How did your father being taken by the FBI affect your family?
GA: Well, we were only a family of four, my mother, father, sister, brother, and me; so naturally, it affected all of us. We were bitter about it because he had done nothing to offend this country, but I'm sure he felt the same way. Why would he be taken? But many of the -- by the way, he was a leader in the Portland community before war, before the war, and many of the community leaders were taken just like my father when the war was declared.
SG: How did it affect the grocery store when he was taken?
GA: Not too much because my mother was managing at that time. And by the way, the day he was taken I came home from the army, that was February of 1942, and I told you I was released in February of '42, and I came home the same day my dad was taken. He was taken in the morning and I came home in the afternoon.
SG: You must have been shocked to hear that.
GA: Yeah, yeah, I was, sure. I was very much surprised.
SG: And they gave no specific reason other than he's being a community leader?
GA: That's right. Well, they wouldn't give me any reason at that time, no reason whatever. Later, we found out that because he was a member of the society.
SG: You were, were you actually there when the FBI came?
GA: No.
<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.