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BN: Do you remember December 7th?

MT: Very much, very much. When we went to church, going to church with my father and mother said they have to go to San Francisco to see this Horita family, and the mother had just passed away, so they were really close friends. So he left about nine o'clock. We went to church, so we just went to church at nine o'clock and initially said he'll be back by four o'clock. So going over, he said he got stopped on the bridge. They questioned where he was going, but he was in a suit and everything, so they let him go. And he went to... and still, they didn't have a radio, they had a radio in the car, but didn't listen to it. He went to the kuyamin, they had the minister there, but no one knew about the bombing. Everyone was there, so they had a small service and got in his car and he was coming home about three o'clock. And he got stuck and got stopped about three times, then he found out what was happening. Leaving, they found out that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. So we were at home and we didn't know, we were kids, and we were playing outside and people were talking about bombing Pearl Harbor. Where's Pearl Harbor? As we grew up, the Japanese were, they were going into Singapore and China and everywhere else, Taiwan and Korea. So we just thought it was another place, we didn't realize it was... and it was a territory at the time, it wasn't a state or anything. I guess people weren't... they weren't that concerned about it at the time. I guess the older people were, but not the younger people. So my father didn't get home until after seven o'clock. So we were sitting on the steps there in wintertime. And we went to our neighbor's house, and they fed us dinner. But it was kind of scary. And then after the war, school next day was totally different. Yeah, I was kind of glad that Christmas vacation came around, because then I didn't have to face the kids at school. Because they were still friends, but they were a little bit keeping a distance, so to speak. They didn't have their arms around you and playing recess together, and it wasn't there anymore. Lunch I would eat by myself or eat with a Japanese girl or something. Because she didn't have her, lost her friends, too. It was a rude awakening for us. But I'm sure the parents, the hakujin parents, at dinnertime, talking about the war, and they say, "How about the Japanese here?" "They're getting thrown out of here, out of Alameda. They didn't bomb Pearl Harbor, but we don't know the Japanese like we know the Italians and the Germans." And so there's suspicion there, even amongst the kids. I'm sure that came down to the family.

BN: Then what happened with your dad's gardening after that?

MT: Oh, he just had to leave, it was just nothing. And my dad, like I said, he worked hard, and we had two cars, one for his business and one for pleasure. We had to leave one car behind. We had gotten the house, we had new furniture, had to leave that. And we were, everybody was trying to get into Oakland or Berkeley or Hayward or somewhere. But there was a lot of hysteria at the time, lot of chaotic things. And so the Japanese tried to rent a house in other cities. Well, there's, the landlords were white, they were in no way going to rent to a Japanese, they would be ostracized. So the Japanese families, lot of them, they were living in the garage of some friends or some relatives, they lived in the garage or in the basement, and they said it was really tough. And so a lot of people moved out of the area where they could rent a home like in, some people went to Stockton, San Jose, and way out to Hayward and Warm Springs, that was way out there, inaka, you know, they had to go inaka. So that's why, they say in every camp there was somebody from Alameda, that's what they say.

BN: And we should clarify, the reason for this is because Alameda, kind of like Terminal Island, is this place where...

MT: We had a naval air station and it was growing really big.

BN: Right, right.

MT: It was a security risk for the navy.

BN: So the Japanese have to be out of, kind of kicked out of Alameda at the end of February.

MT: Yeah, middle of February, I think before the 9066 was signed, you know. And then our friends, my father had friends in Cortez, which was just south of Turlock. And they said, "Come on out here," they called my father and they said, "Come on out here," and they said, "We've got a big farm, lot of room here," and they don't even know we're here. They don't even know we're here, right? That was in February, and in April, we were in an assembly center. April, May, we were in the assembly center, yeah.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.