Topaz Oral History Project research files: Published articles (1920s-1980s)

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merua ~ d and shipped to the camps cember I went to Poston to mraged pastor who felt that ere was considerable rivalry >ably between the different distributed by the Christian o attract children to their e would be enough for all. )Ution handled by commu­) ads of gifts arrived and to ·ts than children. Each child ensive gift which carried a u ge sorted the gifts wisely. e libraries, and towels and l had no children in their ; ifts was distributed in the vith the donors helped with :changed letters, and some­• n was lessened. ld not be enough gifts so I ::>p" -pieces big enough to .:1thusiastic letters of appre- Esther." I wrote back that •erform errands for them. I to celebrate my mother's ight be guessed. Thereafter oads" with apologies and nail items. I found that my ·Is whose parents were not o college. gan opening offices in such :ourage employers to make ,s as well as to provide a camps. Before the Author­ ·rican Friends Service staff in that city. The American the placement of special practice only in California. for a capable optometrist, able to her would be as a els where evacuees could The Wartime Relocation of Japanese I 13 7 come for a few days and get jobs as a result of personal interviews. The hostels satisfied the requirement that the evacuees had to have jobs before they could be relocated. Many Nisei found far better jobs as a result of the hostels because they were challenged to make good. Some parents were afraid to let their children go. Two sisters came to me and asked that I permit the younger girl to go with her sister to one of our hostels. Their parents would not give permission. I talked with the younger girl about her relationship with her parents and sug­gested that a break with them would be tragic. I advised her to wait until she had her parents' permission. The girls insisted that their parents were stubborn and would not understand. Still I refused and urged them to be frank with their parents. In two days the parents consented, apparently feeling they could trust the girl to an organization which stressed the value of good relations with parents. Later the emphasis changed from relocating individuals, mostly Nisei, to that of arranging for families to leave the camps. The staff found work for many able Issei in nurseries, truck farms, and mainte­nance jobs at colleges where Japanese students had already proven their worth. By autumn of 1943 induction of the Nisei into the U.S. Army became a great issue. Some of them wanted to volunteer to prove their loyalty as Americans. Others felt it was unfair of the government to call men from "internment" into service. As a result families were divided, and some boys volunteered and left without telling their parents. Two other events complicated the situation. An exchange ship, I recall, was sched­uled to transport expatriates to Japan and the United States Government eventually decided to segregate those to be embarked at the TuleLake Center. 3 I served on the welfare staff at Poston during this confusion. Japanese nationals who applied for expatriation were considered dis­loyal and transferred to TuleLake. A very few subsequently embarked on the repatriation ship and most of them had relatives in Japan who requested their expatriation and helped pay their passage. We had to interpret regulations to the few who left since they were not allowed to take printed matter with them. That regulation was especially tragic ... for one Boy Scout who was not permitted to take the record of his honors with him-like many others he did not want to leave. 4 The evacuees' applications for repatriation seldom were related to national loyalties. One man, too old to start over, had all his savings in a Japanese bank, and requested return to Japan to maintain his financial security. Another did not want his daughters to relocate in the Midwest -he elected to take his family to TuleLake so the daughters would not be allowed to relocate. Still another was a second son whose older