|
After this resolution came out, we finally, among the Nisei Young Democrats, discussed this and said that we were against it, but we would cooperate with the government. And that was our position concerning the evacuation at the time. We were against it in principle, because we saw that we didn't have the strength to fight it all the way. Since no other organizations supported us, we couldn't fight it either. Because of that, as I said the position we took was that we were against it in principle, but we would support the government and go along and not fight the evacuation.
Did anyone else agree with this resolution?
It was only the Nisei Young Democrats among the Japanese-Americans that took this position. In fact, even the progressive organizations, like the American Civil Liberties Union didn't support us. It was only later on that Ernest Blessing, who was the chairman of the ACLU of Northern California, came out as an individual against it. And he's the one that took up the Formats case, finally. I don't know if you know about it, but there were three Nisei who stood up against the evacuation, and Fred Korematsu was one from Oakland. Ernest Besig was the only individual. I can't recall the name of the guy from the Longshoremen, but there was one guy who, as an individual, came out against it.
Where was your family at this time?
Unfortunately, my family wasn't with me, I was alone. See, my family was in Japan—I came here by myself—so I didn't have a family actually. That's why in evacuation—I was a bachelor—three other bachelors also came in with me. One of them was a student at UC, he wanted to stay and finish his school. His family moved to Fresno to be with friends, but he stayed and he said he would go with me. Another friend did the same thing—his family moved out and he stayed. And there was another fellow, also. There were four of us who batched together, and we went in as a family, so we had a family number—the number that was given to us. One thing good that came out of this was that, being progressive, we didn't want to just sit alone in there. When we went into Tanforan, we were in there as a group, so the Nisei Young Democrats got together and said, "Let's run a progressive as a camp councilman." And so, since I knew Japanese, they thought that I would be the best candidate. I was run as the candidate, and, because we had this nucleus, we won. So I became a councilman of Tanforan. Then we went to Topaz, and the Nisei Young Democrats did the same thing.
Were you guys still a family?
Yeah. And because of our progressive background, and since we were in a barrack by ourselves—the four of us got a room to ourselves—we organized a study group. We would have a study group and talk about the discriminatory cases and things like that so we would educate the people. That's how I met Chizu; she was interested. She came and I met her for the first time. I got to know her, and then, of course, later we worked in the same department, the social service department, and we got to know each other better. She, for the first time, learned about discrimination, just like when I first got into Cal, and that's how she became progressive, too.
Did you ever get in contact with your family before you went in internment?
Not before I was interned. No communication there.
After Pearl Harbor but before you were interned you weren't able to?
Not after Pearl Harbor no. Not until the war was over.
So they didn't know that you were being interned?
I don't know if they knew or not. They probably heard about Japanese being put into camps. They probably knew that I was in a camp, but they don't know where.
|
