<Begin Segment 22>

TI: So tell me about this anger. How did it manifest itself? Did you talk to people about it? Where did it show up?

KO: Well, it didn't show up. I tend to stew about things. I think about things, and the more I think about it, the more I stew. So it's kind of keeping it inside. I think that's part of our family way of doing things.

TI: And where was that anger sort of directed towards? Earlier you mentioned how the media, the Hearst newspapers and how, what they were doing. Was it directed towards the media or was it to the government or to the camp administration? Who were you angry at?

KO: Yeah. I've been asked that question before, and I have never blamed the government. Because the government was lobbied by this group of anti-Japanese immigrants which go way back fifty, sixty years before Pearl Harbor. Those people wanted the Japanese out of their society. They did everything to get these Japanese out of here, like they got the Chinese to stop coming to America, they wanted the Japanese to stop coming to America, and they wanted Japanese farmers "out of our valley, they're taking more of their share of the market than we are, they're catching more fish than we are, they're taking jobs away that we, good hardworking white men should have," kind of thing. That movement is the stuff that forced us to move off the coast. It's to that group that I address my anger.

TI: And were there in the Portland area or you were aware of, particular groups that you felt that towards?

KO: Well, one of the... this was the coalition of labor unions, of farm producers, of patriotic groups, the American Legion, the VFW. In fact, I had an experience with the VFW which I don't know if I ever mentioned it to you or not. But our hotel on Third and Salmon was directly across the street from the VFW clubhouse. And one evening I came home and sat down for dinner. This was before 1942. I had just finished delivering the evening paper and had come upstairs to have dinner, and a policeman came up, almost followed me up the stairs. But about five minutes after I sat down for dinner, knocked on the door, and when my sister opened the door, he pushed the door so she had to back up, and he said, "I want to see that kid who just came up the stairs." And I was sitting at the table, he came over and said, "Grab a broom and follow me." And we didn't know what he wanted, but we don't talk back to policemen and say, "Tell me what it's all..." So I went down the stairs with him, and Salmon Street was strewn with glass. And the traffic was beginning to back up because they couldn't pass this street. And the policeman says, "Now clean it up, Kid." And I started to say, "I didn't do that." And he pointed at the VFW hall and said, "Hey, see all those guys over there? They saw you do it. Those are my witnesses." And I had to clean up that street of glass before the traffic could move on. But I've forgiven the VFW, but I have not ever been close to the American Legion.

I do donate a few bucks to the VFW because even after the war, the Nisei vets came back home to different parts of the communities, and they weren't allowed membership into the American Legion. That almost goes back to the World War I days, too, when Japanese veterans came back home and they were not allowed membership into the American Legion. At least the VFW started to open up a few posts for Nisei vets.

TI: And so this incident that, where you had to clean the street of glass, did that happen before or after Pearl Harbor?

KO: It was before Pearl Harbor.

TI: And why do you think they essentially chose you or picked on you to do that? I mean, obviously it was probably, they said... why? Why did they do that?

KO: Well, of course, I was the only Japanese boy in the neighborhood. This clubhouse is a big storefront, they could see me coming and going every night. I had a paper route, and they could see me from the window passing by all the time.

TI: And so when you went upstairs, at that point, did someone just throw a bottle or something? Or how did that broken glass even get there?

KO: Well, to litter the street with that much glass, all it takes is ten guys with a whiskey bottle in each hand and just all throwing at the count of three or something and it's done.

TI: And going back to the policeman, was he in on it? He knew that they had done that and was just going along with that, or did he just believe what these guys said and was kind of duped by them?

KO: He might have even just been, he might have just stopped there at the VFW hall at the same time. He might have been, I don't say a member of the VFW post there, or whether he just thought to say hello to the guys and they decided that they would do that, and our friend here in uniform can go and get that kid.

TI: And you were able to not lose your temper? I would think that most people would have really been upset about this.

KO: Well, I was upset not to lose my temper, but my brother says, "I think he was crying pretty hard."

TI: That you were crying pretty hard?

KO: Yeah.

TI: When you had to do this? And when you finished doing that, what did the police officer do or the men watching? Did you notice them do anything?

KO: No, I don't, but I think they just kind of walked away from the window and I went back up to my place.

TI: Well, thank you for sharing that. That's a painful memory.

KO: Yeah, yeah. But I've gotten, like I say, I've gotten over it enough to donate a few bucks to the VFW. [Laughs]

TI: I think you're a bigger man than I am. I don't think I would have been able to do that.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.