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RM: Where were you on "Pearl Harbor Day"?

JK: Well, we were on the farm, you know, the Japanese, Isseis always wanted to be able to purchase land...

RM: Uh-huh.

JK: ...and my brother had turned eighteen about three years earlier. So they were looking for a place to purchase, and they found a 8-acre, strictly truck farm that the Japanese Amer-, well, the, they were nationals, had been leasing, and they were gonna be moving to Idaho with their -- some other families had farms there, and they had this farm and equipment up for sale, well, equipment up for sale, and the lease available. And the people that owned the farm were schoolteachers, one widow and her daughter taught at a Kent school system, and they're willing to give us a lease purchase agreement -- to my brother, that is, who was at that time, close to twenty-one. So we were on the farm, in fact, that particular day... Sunday is always a busy day for truck farmers, because the Monday market. And so we were bunching carrots. [Laughs] This is December 7th, but the carrots were still green and all, and so that's when Pearl Harbor occurred, and things changed ever since that time, yeah. They never went back to the farm.

RM: Were you in school? You must have been, at the time.

JK: Yes, I was in school, going to Auburn, the high school at that time, as a junior.

RM: What was the response of, say, the Caucasian students?

JK: Well, the Caucasian students, I -- some of them said, "Gee, I'm sorry, what's happening to you people," type of thing. But one of the first thing is that my mathematics teacher got me up front. The first, that was the first class I had -- and said, "Okay, my country -- " his country... [Laughs]

RM: Quote.

JK: [Laughs] Quote. "Is fighting your country," what do I feel about it? And I told him, "Mr. Shumacher, this is my country just as well." And, you know it's, being a junior and gone through civics and all that, you had a little, sort of rebel in you. And I said, "I'm just as American as you are," and sat down.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.