Excerpt of Email Interview With Bill Yoshino, January 10th, 2014
JACL Midwest Regional Director
1.Are you descended from a internee?
"Yes, my parents were confined at Heart Mountain in Wyoming during World War II."
2. What were the living conditions of camp life?
"The camps contained approximately 10,000 people and were located in desolate areas of the country. Heart Mountain was a semi-arid desert where it was extremely cold in the winter and hot in the summer. They lived in barracks that each housed three families. The barracks were without furnishings and had a stove for heating. Initially, there were no walls and blankets had to be hung on clotheslines as wall partitions. All the toilet and shower facilities were common with little privacy. Food was served in a mess hall."
3.How did they distract themselves from the terrible living conditions?
"Some of the internees had jobs in the camps; however they were paid very low wages. They formed sports teams, held dances, published a camp newspaper. Schools were established where many of the internees served as teachers."
4.How did you feel about the loyalty questions? Would you answer to the 27th and the 28th question to be loyal to America?
"Most of the internees answered yes to each question, even though the questions caused great tension and anxiety. It demonstrated the government did not trust Japanese Americans even though two-thirds were American citizens. One question asked the internees to swear allegiance to the U.S. as if their loyalty could not be trusted. For those who had immigrated to the U.S., who could not by law become naturalized as citizens, the questions posed a specific problem because it asked them to forswear allegiance to Japan, which meant that they would become stateless because they couldn't become U.S. citizens."
5. What happened if you said no to both questions?
"If you answered “no” to both questions, the likelihood is that you were transferred to the Tule Lake concentration camp in California that was used to house the so-called dissidents."
6. Do you think the Japanese Americans should have been treated better?
"Of course. They should have been treated like American citizens, because that’s what they were. No Japanese American was prosecuted for espionage or sabotage."
"Yes, my parents were confined at Heart Mountain in Wyoming during World War II."
2. What were the living conditions of camp life?
"The camps contained approximately 10,000 people and were located in desolate areas of the country. Heart Mountain was a semi-arid desert where it was extremely cold in the winter and hot in the summer. They lived in barracks that each housed three families. The barracks were without furnishings and had a stove for heating. Initially, there were no walls and blankets had to be hung on clotheslines as wall partitions. All the toilet and shower facilities were common with little privacy. Food was served in a mess hall."
3.How did they distract themselves from the terrible living conditions?
"Some of the internees had jobs in the camps; however they were paid very low wages. They formed sports teams, held dances, published a camp newspaper. Schools were established where many of the internees served as teachers."
4.How did you feel about the loyalty questions? Would you answer to the 27th and the 28th question to be loyal to America?
"Most of the internees answered yes to each question, even though the questions caused great tension and anxiety. It demonstrated the government did not trust Japanese Americans even though two-thirds were American citizens. One question asked the internees to swear allegiance to the U.S. as if their loyalty could not be trusted. For those who had immigrated to the U.S., who could not by law become naturalized as citizens, the questions posed a specific problem because it asked them to forswear allegiance to Japan, which meant that they would become stateless because they couldn't become U.S. citizens."
5. What happened if you said no to both questions?
"If you answered “no” to both questions, the likelihood is that you were transferred to the Tule Lake concentration camp in California that was used to house the so-called dissidents."
6. Do you think the Japanese Americans should have been treated better?
"Of course. They should have been treated like American citizens, because that’s what they were. No Japanese American was prosecuted for espionage or sabotage."