Would you answer the loyalty questionnaire and lose your country?

A pregnant Japanese American poet gives birth on orange crates in a converted horse stall - will a government “loyalty” questionnaire strip them of country and rights?

Would you answer the loyalty questionnaire and lose your country?

In this episode, we follow Violet Kazue de Cristoforo’s account of being forced from her home, giving birth in a makeshift camp, and continuing to write through incarceration and displacement. It traces how a two-question loyalty registration forced impossible choices about citizenship, identity, and survival - what would you have done?

Person: Violet Kazue de Cristoforo Event: Forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor Location: Fresno Assembly Center; Jerome War Relocation Center; Tule Lake Segregation Center Date: Questionnaire issued early 1943; book dated 1944 and finished 1993 Topic: Loyalty registration (questions 27-28) and its consequences

- Born in 1912 in Coalinga, California, Kazue was an American citizen who ran a Japanese-language bookshop in Fresno and was active in haiku circles. - After Executive Order 9066, Kazue and her family were sent to the Fresno Assembly Center, where she gave birth on a table made from fruit crates inside a horse stall. - The War Relocation Authority’s “loyalty” questionnaire arrived in early 1943 with two pivotal items: willingness to serve in the U.S. armed forces, and renouncing allegiance to the Japanese emperor. - Answering yes to renounce allegiance could strip legally barred immigrants of their only citizenship; answering no marked detainees as disloyal and risked transfer to places like Tule Lake. - Kazue wrote in real time during camps and after, producing a book with a cover date of 1944 that she completed in 1993, preserving the contemporaneous thoughts of poets inside the camps.

To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

© 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved. This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].