<Begin Segment 42>

TY: [Jpn.] And then on December 7th, on December 7th in 1941 there was a bombing on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese military gave a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

MK: [Jpn.] Oh, yeah. That's right. That's right.

TY: [Jpn.] So do you remember that time?

MK: [Jpn.] After that, how...

TY: [Jpn.] How did you hear the news?

MK: [Jpn.] What?

TY: [Jpn.] How did you hear about the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

MK: [Jpn.] Well, everybody knew it even if they didn't tell us. Individuals may have said so, but we couldn't correspond any longer.

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah. Well, then, how did you know that Pearl Harbor was bombed? How did you and your family find out?

MK: [Jpn.] Oh, through a newspaper. They said it on the news.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] So you found out right away. Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] What did you think of it?

MK: [Jpn.] Wow, great... that tiny country...

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] How in the world did they do that against this huge country?

TY: [Jpn.] Huh.

MK: [Jpn.] Isn't it right?

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah.

MK: [Jpn.] The U.S. is such a big country and has nothing to worry about. But Japan is such a small country. What does it have? It's a small island country. Yeah. Well, in those days, the military had a huge amount of power. Nobody could control them. But I think the Emperor did not want to wage this war. Uh-huh, yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Then, before the war started, did you think there might be a war?

MK: [Jpn.] Huh?

TY: [Jpn.] Possibly...

MK: [Jpn.] Oh, we discuss it sometimes.

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah.

MK: [Jpn.] Well, but they could not imagine that Japan would come here.

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. See? We can imagine the U.S. coming to Japan, but we couldn't imagine Japan coming to the U.S.

TY: [Jpn.] I see. Then, what did you think of your future now that you were citizens of the enemy?

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. That's right. Because we were "enemy foreigners," we were all put away.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Well, those of us who were living along this Coast were all sent (to camps).

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] They put all of us away including children, even newborn babies.

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah.

MK: [Jpn.] It's so cruel.

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah.

MK: [Jpn.] They put all of us away.

<End Segment 42> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.