<Begin Segment 1>

HH: Today is Saturday, August 27th, time now is three thirty-five, and we are in Medford Leas. What is your full name?

GI: My full name is George Kazuo Ikeda.

HH: What is your wife's name?

GI: My wife's name is Janet Sonoko Yamamoto.

HH: How many siblings do you have, and where they live and how old are they?

GI: All right. I have four younger siblings. Their ages are Tsugio, who lives in Montana, is sixty-nine years old. Mitsuo, who lives in Florida, is sixty-seven years old. Hideo lives in Montana, Billings, Montana, is fifty-seven years old, and Kengo, who lives in Marlton New Jersey, is fifty-five years old.

HH: How many children do you have?

GI: I have four children, two boys and two girls.

HH: How old are they?

GI: How old are my children? The oldest daughter is forty years old. The second child is a boy, Bruce, and he is thirty-five years old. My third child, a girl, who lives in O'Fallon, Illinois, is thirty-three years old. And my youngest, Douglas, lives in Macungie, Pennsylvania, is thirty years old.

HH: Macungie, Pennsylvania?

GI: Yes, Macungie, Pennsylvania.

HH: What kind of education did your children receive and what are they doing today?

GI: My oldest went to Muhlenberg College, majored in Political Science and got a master's in political public service. And she is working for the General Accounting Office in Washington D.C. My second child, my son, also went to Muhlenberg College. He was a history major, but he is now a business manager for IBM, and he lives in Berwyn, Pennsylvania. My third child, Jane, went to Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, became a medical doctor and is a pediatrician in O'Fallon, Illinois. And my youngest went to Penn State Business Administration, and he is a marketing manager for the [inaudible] division of Johnson & Johnson.

HH: At this point, how many grandchildren do you have?

GI: How many grandchildren do you have? I have five grandsons. [Laughs]

HH: How old are they?

GI: Well, they range in age from Brian who is six, then Casey, who is three, then Eric, who will be three in October. Then there's Danny, who will be two in March of next year, �and the youngest is Jamie, who was born a week before Christmas, so he is eight months old now.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 2>

HH: George, when and where were you born? When and where were you born?

GI: When and where was I born? I was born on February 24, 1922, in San Juan Bautista, California, which is on the El Camino Real mission trail and one of the working missions built by Father Junipero Serra.

HH: Is that near Salinas?

GI: It's not too far from Salinas. It's about nineteen miles from Salinas.

HH: So how old would that make you today, if you're born in...

GI: How old am I now? I'm seventy-two years old.

HH: Your parents' names?

GI: My parents' name. My father's name was Genroku Ikeda, and my mother's name was so Tsuyuko Ikeda.

HH: Now, this town in which you were born, is that also where you grew up?

GI: No, I was born in San Juan Bautista, but I actually grew up in a town called Salinas, California.

HH: Okay, and so were you in Salinas up to the time of evacuation?

GI: Yes, I was in Salinas until the time of evacuation.

HH: How would you describe this town? Would you call it the city of Salinas at that time?

GI: The city of Salinas at the time had a population of about ten thousand. It was a farming community. In fact, even John Steinbeck wrote about the fertile Salinas Valley, it has become the lettuce capital of the world.

HH: Did you attend high school in Salinas?

GI: Yes, I attended high school in Salinas. It was called Salinas Union High School.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 3>

HH: And so when the war broke out on December 7, you went eventually from Salinas to the assembly center at the rodeo grounds. And then from there, where did you go after your time in the Salinas Assembly Center?

GI: In April, we were first sent to the Salinas Assembly Center at the rodeo grounds, and on July 3rd of 1944, were put on a train to Poston, Arizona, the permanent relocation center.

HH: What do you recall about those days from December 7th until that day in April when you moved into the assembly center?

GI: Well, I think the days between December 7, 1941, until April 1942, they were trying days, not knowing what to expect next. There are rumors flying every day, both with the media as well as among the Nikkei population, was enough to give people ulcers.

HH: Did you have any difficulty in making that move or storing or getting rid of your property?

GI: Yes, we did. I think... although, getting rid of our property, we didn't have any real estate because I was not old enough to own land, and the land was leased by an older Nisei. But Dad had a difficult time putting his farm equipment up for sale, and also some of our household belongings. But fortunately, we had a very kind neighbor that agreed to keep a lot of things for us, which came in handy after the war, because we had quite a bit of our household goods shipped to us in New Jersey. And also a truck that we stored was used by a friend of ours that went back to California and started farming, and he made good use of that truck.

HH: All told, how many months did you spend in the combined time in Salinas and Poston?

GI: How many months did I spend combined assembly center and Poston? Well, starting in April, and until June of... April of '42 until June of '44, that would be about twenty-six months.

HH: So you were in for twenty-six months. During that time, did you ever get out for some kind of work leave, or did you stay in most of the time?

GI: I did... during that two, little over two years, I asked for a temporary leave to visit a cousin in another relocation center to talk about possibly moving out together to some point in a non-restricted zone. Other than that, I don't recall leaving the camp.

HH: What kind of area would be included in a non-restricted zone?

GI: What kind of area would be included in a non-restricted zone? Well, it was an area described by General DeWitt, and that would have been any point east of the three Pacific states.

HH: I see. Okay, as long as you're off the Pacific Coast.

GI: Yes.

HH: That'd be Oregon, Washington, California.

GI: Right?

HH: Did that work out, did you talk to your cousin?

GI: No. We had... our discussion kind of went awry because my cousin had different ideas about where they wanted to go, as opposed to where we would have liked to have gone. My cousin having to come from Los Angeles, and they wanted to get into a metropolitan area. We, coming from Salinas, were looking towards a more rural community, so we did not have a meeting of the mind. So that discussion fell through.

HH: All right.

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

<Begin Segment 4>

HH: So you were in Poston, and you eventually got out. Where did you end up after evacuation?

GI: We ended, my brother and I left Poston in June of 1944 and came directly to the Philadelphia area.

HH: How did you choose Philadelphia?

GI: How did I choose Philadelphia? Actually, it was chosen for us. A lady by the name of Esther Rhodes visited our camp. And my brother Mitsuo, who had just completed his eleventh year in school, had a pretty good scholastic record, which Esther Rhodes thought would be better served, he would be better served attending a school in the east. And since she was a Quaker lady, she arranged to have him attend a Friends school in the Philadelphia area. Since he was only seventeen years old, my parents were a little apprehensive about letting him come out to the east alone. And I was champing at the bit to get out anyway, so when they suggested that I leave camp with him, I didn't hesitate at all. And of course, at that time, I was draft age, so I had to ask for a draft classification change and I became 1-A and was given immediate release from camp to come out to Pennsylvania.

HH: What kind of employment did you find when you arrived in Pennsylvania?

GI: Well, it was rather difficult. What kind of employment did I find here in Pennsylvania? It was rather difficult to find employment. When they asked your draft status, you automatically said, "I'm 1-A." So I finally ended up with a job in a sweatshop, machine shop, doing pretty heavy manual work for a company that did defense work primarily on the Russian Lend Lease program. In fact, the owner of the company was a White Russian, Mr. Bermistov.

HH: All right, so you were able to find employment and does that mean that you more or less supported yourself and your brother during this time?

GI: Yes. I had to work to give Mitsuo some spending money, but he stayed with a professor's family in Haverford College, and from there he attended Friends Central School.

HH: You were 1-A. Does that mean that you were eventually drafted?

GI: Yes. Because of my 1-A status I was called for a physical around the end of 1944 and I only weighed 107 pounds and was skin and bone, thanks to camp life. That they said, "We have to classify you 1-A limited." I had primarily volunteered for the 442nd as a replacement, but then when they said 1-A limited, I also had been interviewed by Colonel Rasmussen for the MIS school at, I think it was Camp Savage in Minnesota. So I asked for that, but then I was told that in the end of 1944, they had more than enough Nisei interpreters and the way the war was going, they didn't think they would be recruiting anymore. So I was sent home and said, "When they're scraping the bottom of the barrel, they might call you."

HH: [Laughs] So you didn't have to serve after all.

GI: No.

HH: Okay. So now that your draft classification was changed somewhat, did that help you find different kind of employment?

GI: Yes. 1-A limited, and it was a joke, really, as they said, when they scrape the bottom of the barrel, they take the 1-A limited. It was essentially 4-F with no physical ailments. [Laughs] And through the company I was working for, that is Vibration Specialty, I got to know people at YORK Corporation, where I did some of their balancing work for their machinery. I was able to get a job with YORK Corporation, a refrigeration company. And it was a little bit of an upgrade in job opportunity.

HH: How long did you stay with that company?

GI: I stayed with YORK Corporation for about thirteen years. And in the meantime, I took a leave of absence to get my mechanical engineering degree. I actually wanted to become a civil engineer before the war, but I found refrigeration very interesting and I wanted to pursue that field, so I changed to mechanical engineering and finally got my degree at Rutgers University.

HH: Were you a full time student?

GI: I ended up a full time student because some of the earlier studies at Drexel in the evening was taking too long.

HH: And so all told, how long did it take you to earn your degree?

GI: Twelve years between evacuation and degree.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 5>

HH: When you came to Philadelphia, although you knew Esther Rhodes, because she was your link at least for permits to go to Penn central. Did you have other kinds of connections in Philadelphia?

GI: Well...

HH: I'm thinking of resources that you might have, that's what I'm thinking of. What kind of resources did you have in Philadelphia?

GI: Actually, when we came to Philadelphia we had no resources except for a few bucks of savings, and we were totally dependent on the Friends. And Esther Rhodes played another role indirectly in that when she was running the Evergreen hostel in Pasadena, she had a young lady, a summer student from Earlham College, help her with people that were settling back, resettling back in California. Her name was Alice Roberts, nickname was Robin Roberts, who came from a family in New Jersey. Her father owned a farm right here in Marlton, New Jersey, his name was Byron T. Roberts. And she persuaded her father to employ somebody out of the concentration camp to come work for him. And that's how we were able to get my father, mother and my two youngest brothers to come out to New Jersey in fall of 1945.

HH: You mentioned earlier that you had one brother in Markham, New Jersey. Is that one brother still somehow connected with a farm?

GI: No. That's Mitsuo. He spent a little time during the summer before school started. In fact, he worked with a Tak Moriuchi at Martin's farm, that was a summer of '44 before he enrolled at Friends Central.

HH: How and when did you meet your wife?

GI: Well, actually, my wife was in the same camp as I, Poston, in fact in the same block, and she came out about the same time came to attend Westtown school. But she came out with a schoolteacher, a core study schoolteacher who taught at Poston II high school, her name was Joanne Smith. And Joanne persuaded my wife-to-be, and a couple of other young ladies, to resettle in the Philadelphia area. And at that time, I had no idea she would become my wife, but I don't know, fate brought us together and we were married in 1953.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 6>

HH: A number, you experienced a number of things in your life, from the time you left Salinas to all the things you did in Philadelphia. Can you think of some events, some activities that you will always remember as being perhaps even a turning point in your life?

GI: Actually, I had no epoch-making event that I would call a turning point.

HH: Or it's of some significance?

GI: Some significance? Well, I think working for YORK Corporation gave me a direction on what I wanted to do as my life work, and that was in the field of mechanical engineering, low temperature work, not only mechanical refrigeration, but also into the field of cryogenics, and I made that my life career. And it has been very satisfying, enjoyable, got involved with the space program, and also into many international activities. So I have no regrets about the decision I made to go from civil engineering curriculum to mechanical engineering.

HH: Are you still working today?

GI: I've been retired from Air Products for eight years now, but I do have a, as needed- type contract where they can... agreement where they can call me anytime for consulting work.

HH: In the course of your life, from the time you lived in California to what you have, your life here in Pennsylvania, you experienced, perhaps various forms of racism or bigotry. Has it changed any of the shape or forms or any kind of trend that you could see, over the course of years, over the years?

GI: I think I'm less afraid of prejudice, by virtue of becoming an easterner than I would have been had I remained in California.

HH: Why so?

GI: Why so? Why do I feel that? Because my frequent visits to California and discussions with my friends that remained in California, their attitude and my attitude towards racism is quite different. Maybe it's because the Nikkeis back in California are more numerous, that they tend to stay together, much more cohesive. And out here, especially where we live, in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, we're the only Nikkei family and we've been accepted. We have had no real open prejudice shown us except for one occasion, I will have to mention that. It did bother me, it scared my wife in that, during one of my talks during the redress activity, I did have a threatening phone call. But other than that, I've had no open face-to-face type prejudice. And that's saying a lot for Lehigh Valley where those local Dutch people wouldn't accept outsiders until they're there for about three generations.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.

<Begin Segment 7>

HH: What is your reaction, your feelings regarding the expression "model minority"?

GI: Yes. I think the term "model minority," I think bothers my Chinese American friends more than it does me. We have a very large Chinese American population in Lehigh Valley. In fact, I'm a member of the Organization of Chinese Americans, and I attend their meetings, and that term, "model American," does bother them quite a bit. Because as you know, there are many people of Asian ancestry that are not as well off as a lot of the white Americans perceive Asian Americans to be.

HH: So they're saying that it doesn't really fairly describe Asians, that there are many others who don't fit the "model minority," that kind of...

GI: Exactly, yes.

HH: You probably know that there are many Asians who are flattered even for that label.

GI: I don't know of... well, yes, I do know a few that that take pride in the accomplishments of Asian Americans in the schools. We have a very good record of Asian Americans making the Merit Scholar list in our area, yes. Some of the Asian community leaders do take pride in that, and I guess they don't have too much objection to that term. But many of my thinking Asian friends don't particularly care for being described as a "model minority."

HH: Can you point to specific or particular values that you have practices, certain kinds of ways you appreciate art, food, dress, maybe even demeanor, to your Asian roots?

GI: Oh, I think the Confucian philosophy has a great influence on the activities of not only Nikkeis but people from Korea, people from China, Taiwan. Work ethics and respect for elders, family unity, those are our values that I don't credit only Nikkei, but all those cultures that are influenced by the Confucian philosophy. I'm a great believer in that.

HH: That's all the questions I have. Thank you very much, it was wonderful.

GI: Thank you.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.