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AI: Well, let's see, speaking of the whole World War II and the, your family's removal from Seattle, along with everyone else, some of your work really has depicted some of your earliest childhood memories, so maybe now would be a time for you to just recall some of those earliest memories. Some of them are, you have depicted in your artwork, and other memories you may not have, but, just things that are significant that you do recall.

RS: Yeah, I was, I was two years old at the time when the war broke out. And of course I don't remember, I don't remember Pearl Harbor day, but I asked my father about it. And he said that they were in a car driving around, I think they went to church. I believe it was on Sunday. And it was customary for them to go on a drive before they went home after church. And I believe he said he was up around Ballard, or crossing the Ballard Bridge or something like that when the radio announced that, that war had broken out between the two countries. And he said that he immediately made a U-turn to go back home and was extremely frightened and realized the implications that this might have upon their family and their community. And so my grandmother, of course, said in her diary entry, "Today when I got back from church" -- so I guess it was Sunday -- "I heard the dream-like news that Japanese airplanes had bombed Hawaii. I was surprised beyond belief. It was said that at 6:00 a.m. this morning Japan declared war on America." And then she went on to say, "Our future has become gloomy. I pray that God will stay with us." My grandmother was a Christian in Japan, which put her in a very small minority of people. And when she came to this country was very active in the Japanese Methodist Church that today is now known as the Blaine Memorial Methodist Church. I should say this, too, about my grandmother, was that I have been told by several people that she was the first Japanese American woman to get a Washington State driver's license. And, of course, she needed this for her midwife business. I don't know, I haven't checked on that, but I've heard that from several people.

AI: Isn't that interesting. Because yes, she was known to have delivered babies all around the area, not just in Seattle.

RS: Right, right.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.