<Begin Segment 3>

HH: Did your husband have very clear feelings about internment when this happened?

LI: Well, at first he didn't... you know, it was the thing to do, because we were told to do. But as he worked while in camp, well, he kind of changed his mind about it.

HH: Do you recall some of the things that you said?

LI: Well, what he said was he was Japanese American and he didn't think that we should be in camp, we have to go to the internment camp.

HH: Did he say anything in public?

LI: Well, with fellow members that he worked with at the office.

HH: So it was the area in which he spoke in small groups.

LI: Right, uh-huh. Just in the office like, but he didn't speak loud about it.

HH: Did he develop any kind of reputation because of this?

LI: No, no.

HH: I understand that, for whatever reason, various people in Washington, D.C. eventually came into the internment camp. By the way, which internment camp were you in?

LI: Manzanar.

HH: Manzanar, to interview him?

LI: Yes.

HH: Do you recall why you selected him for an interview?

LI: Well, everybody had to be interviewed.

HH: Then it would be everyone, the whole camp?

LI: Yes.

HH: And what was the purpose of these interviews?

LI: Well, they just wanted to know, you know, how we all felt about it after so many came in to see what was going on in the camp. I truly don't know too many details because I was too busy with the family. And it so happened that they were picking out all the people from one barrack to another barrack to another barrack in the whole section where we were staying, and had the interview.

HH: Do you suspect that your husband was very clear about his position regarding internment of Japanese Americans during these interviews?

LI: Well, he has never been to Japan. Only father and mother were from Japan, but being a Japanese American, he's never gone out of California, and he thought that, you know, he just wanted to know why we were sent to internment camp.

HH: Do you suspect that, do you say this, were there feelings of anger?

LI: No, he wasn't angry or anything. He wasn't angry about it, but it's just that it was so much hardship with all our family, what I have to go through with all the children and all that. And naturally, he had to give up all his, you know, work and his surroundings, and we did, too, to go to the camp. And he thought it was unnecessary for us being in, you know, Japanese American, why we have to go to the camp. That was just his feeling, he wanted to express that.

HH: Lily, what happened to people after they were interviewed? Were there some kind of consequence or result of these interviews? Did something happen?

LI: No. I felt that everything was just quiet. They didn't realize what was going on in Tule Lake or anything, it was another camp that we all have to go. So, you know, I was so busy with the children and my in-laws that I didn't nothing of it. All he told me was we were going to go to Tule Lake, for what reason, I didn't even know.

HH: As you look back on that part of your life now, do you suspect that they chose people for Tule Lake because of things that they found out during the interview?

LI: I imagine that's what it was, because I wasn't included in the interview or anything, so I truly don't know what went on.

HH: So only the men were interviewed, is that correct?

LI: Well, some of them had like, there were quite a bit of Kibeis there. And naturally, whoever could speak and understand English was interviewed.

HH: So then only the men interviewed?

LI: No, some women were, too, yes.

HH: But if there happened to be a husband and wife, then only the husband would be interviewed, is that correct?

LI: Yeah, unless they asked the wife to go along for the interview.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.