Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Hiroshi Kashiwagi Interview
Narrator: Hiroshi Kashiwagi
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Klamath Falls, Oregon
Date: July 3, 2004
Densho ID: denshovh-khiroshi-02-0016

HK: you know, the way we were treated, as non-citizens, and then to be, to ask, "Are you loyal?" questioning our loyalty. I mean, we certainly were loyal. Had we not been in camp, I mean, there was no question. And I remember the Nisei who were being drafted before the war, and I was in this men's group, young men's group, and we would have little parties, going-away parties for them. And was picked to give a little speech. And so I would make this funny old patriotic speech, urging them to serve their country and so forth. And, yeah, so, but once we were treated like we were, then, yeah, I couldn't register and say, "I will serve in the army wherever sent," and so forth. I really couldn't. And I think the, the kind of life that we had before the war, some of the abuses that we, we had, I think, played into that decision. The fact that my favorite teacher did not respond to my letter, and then to find out that she was a racist, and those things. We wrote to our boss, in fact, my mother sent some things out of yarn. She made flowers out of yarn -- this is one of the crafts that they did in camp -- and she sent this package, sent it to the boss. And there was no response. She was too busy harvesting the fruit, I guess. I mean, she felt put-upon, because she had to do that, and because we were moved out, we were not there to do the work, or something, she blamed us for it, or blamed Japan, or what. Anyway, she never responded. And there went all that work, and yarn and goodwill and all that. So, yeah, I think all that helped in making my decision.

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