When I am doing genealogy work I often use q&a sorts of interviews to gather general information to guide the direction in which I will do my digging. The actual interview does not get much weight as, very often, the person I am working with must recall though their own experience, and even THOSE responses can change each time I ask the same question over time. I would encourage folks to take the same tack with this material as well. We need to remember that the interviews were conducted with older gentlemen, that folks doing the interview may have been listening for the material they wanted to emphacize, and that later recipients (such as Todd mentions) may have edited what they thought was less important while keeping that which was seen as more important. I really think we need to be pressing forward and looking for documented materials. I suggest that such things as Japanese records including alien registration, census, tax records, school enrollment records, travel records, military and deferment records, salary and police file would provide greater opportunities than continuing to hammer on these oral traditions. Might it be that the only reason we keep coming back to this material is that folks are unwilling to do the sort of hard work it takes to find hard evidence? FWIW.
Best Wishes,
Bruce