<Begin Segment 12>

AC: So going back to your time at Tule Lake, you had mentioned that you were there until the question --

MH: Two questions.

AC: The two questions came up, and that was in a specific... can you tell me more about that?

MH: It was called Question 27 and 28. Twenty-seven says, part of it was saying, "Would you serve in the service of the United States and defend your country?" Okay. That didn't, it wouldn't work with the Isseis because they didn't have citizenship. They didn't get, they weren't allowed citizenship until 1952 or '54, the Walter McCarran Act, so it didn't pertain to them. Twenty-eight said something about, "Would you foreswear all allegiance to the Emperor of Japan?" which didn't pertain to us. So both of those questions were very difficult to answer because it didn't, it just wouldn't work. So then they kind of changed it around. And so finally, if you say "yes-yes" to the two questions, you were to be sent away out of Tule Lake. They were going to keep Tule Lake as a "no-no" camp which means eventually, you would be sent back to Japan. So because we had two boys in the service, Dad says we better just get out of here, and so they sent us to Heart Mountain. But I notice I had families that said "no-no" and stayed at Tule Lake and still here. They didn't, they weren't sent back or anything. But I heard after we left, there was a lot of riots and different things that we didn't have when we were there.

AC: What do you remember of the "loyalty oath"?

MH: "Loyalty oath"? I don't know just what you mean.

AC: I guess, weren't they the, something about being, trying to maybe... when you went on to, these "no-no" people were stuck in Tule Lake, again, did they told you that they were going to be, sent back to Japan?

MH: They assumed.

AC: They assumed they would be.

MH: Uh-huh.

AC: And in, and when you went to Heart Mountain, was that another internment camp or what was that?

MH: Yes.

AC: And that was just because you said, okay. You said, "Yes-yes. Now we can move on. We're getting out of this place."

MH: Yeah.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.