<Begin Segment 12>

LT: Well, at Tule Lake, you also took the "loyalty questionnaire." What do you recall about that?

SA: Not much. I think it said, "Would you forsake all allegiance to the Emperor of Japan?" or something like that, and, "Would you serve in the U.S. force?" something like that, in the army, or, "forsake Japan and give all your allegiance to the United States of America." There were three questions there, I think. So I know my questionnaire was actually all positive, you know. But at Tule Lake there was a lot of so-called "pro-Japanese," you know, pro-Japan. I remember there was some folks in Hood River, lived in what we called "Alaska zone" in Tule Lake. And to get there, we had to go through this California area where there's pro-Japan. And to skip that part, we had to go around about an extra five, ten blocks. But it was some scary times there.

LT: Can you talk about what happened and what you worried about when you went through those areas?

SA: Went through that area? We didn't go through that area, we skirted around it. Because you used to hear about people getting beat up, you know. That camp, when we went there, it was about 15,000, and I think they enlarged it to about twenty. But all the "no-no" people went in there, in Tule Lake.

LT: It's hard for me to imagine being in a camp when the government moved me from my home and my farm, and being behind barbed wire. It must be difficult for some to answer "yes-yes" to those questions.

SA: Yeah.

LT: And in some ways, it's easy to understand how people might be against, or pro-Japan. That must have been very difficult for the Japanese American community to have such divisions in people's attitudes.

SA: Yeah, I think you're right. But I don't know, like in my case, I didn't see why I would answer any way than "yes-yes."

LT: Can you talk about that?

SA: Huh?

LT: Can you talk more about that?

SA: Well, I figure I always, the way I grew up as an American citizen, it just didn't dawn on me that I would put more allegiance to the Emperor of Japan. There was no way I would think that way. I just don't see how.

LT: Did the fact that the American government had taken your father and placed him in a camp, did that also affect your feelings? Because you're in a camp, and your father was in a camp, your brother was serving in the military.

SA: Yeah. Well, Mom used to say if it was Japan, they, like father and mother, Japanese citizens would be treated much worse. She said, "At least we're lucky we're in America." She used to tell me that.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.