<Begin Segment 8>

REM: Where were you on Pearl Harbor day?

RTM: Well, there was a bowling tournament in Tacoma at that time, and, place called the Broadway Bowl, which I think is non-existent anymore. But the tournament was going on at the time that the announcement was made of Pearl Harbor being attacked. And so, to us it was as big a surprise as anybody else, is something like that happening. In those days, we were, we don't follow the newspapers as closely as we do nowadays. And so, and all this ruckus that was going on in Europe and so on, we never paid that much attention to it, really. We probably talked about it a little bit in civics class in high school, but never sank in very much.

REM: Did you go back home to your, the house and talk with your mother and father about what this meant, the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

RTM: No. We really didn't have that much of a discussion on that.

REM: Was your father afraid he might be picked up?

RTM: No. I think we just, everybody was kind of playing it by ear. Being that he wasn't really involved in the community affairs that much, that some of the other people in the area that were, presidents of Nihonjinkai and so on, were the ones that were picked up, the school teachers and so on.

REM: So, you tried to keep everything normal? Would that be a good statement?

RTM: Yes, I think so.

REM: Uh-huh. The, do you remember the actions of the Japanese American Citizens League, the Puyallup Valley chapter, what they tried to do to solve the situation? Were there any, did the JACL in Fife or in the Puyallup Valley, did they just let the events come as they happened or did they try to protest about their patriotism? Do you remember anything like that?

RTM: I don't remember that far back. I mean...

REM: Okay.

RTM: ...what kind of reaction there was amongst the, the officers of JACL at that time. Of course, if you recall, there was, there was another chapter in Tacoma, too. There was the Tacoma JACL and a Puyallup Valley JACL. And so whatever transpired between the two units, I don't know.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.