<Begin Segment 17>

AI: Well, let's back up just a little bit in time, because here you were, going to college and then there was this, the talk of U.S. possibly entering World War II, and then in, of course, in December of 1941, December 7th, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, since you were not really following the politics that much, was it a complete surprise? What do you remember about that day?

RI: I'm racking my brain trying to figure out what I was doing. It's a Sunday, huh? And I really can't dig up any emotions on what I thought or what I said or how I felt. But there had to be plenty of talk among our family. And I think the prime emotion is we're sorta ashamed that we are Japanese and that Japan is the aggressor. You know, in a way, I feel that we wanted to hide somewhere because we are Japanese. And because we have a Japanese face, that we are partly to blame for this event. That kind of feeling. And then, how are we gonna go to school the next day and face everybody? They're gonna look at us and think, "Ooh, you're Japanese." You know, "It's your fault." That kind of thing. And I remember my sister telling me that one or two of her Chinese friends said that they're gonna wear a button their lapel saying "I am Chinese" so that they won't be mistaken as a Japanese. But that kind of feeling, I think we were more concerned about ourselves and how we would be treated rather than the whole political issue of Japan being the aggressor. So, that's about all I can remember. But we did, we did go to school with fear that we would blamed for the war. And we tried to keep ourselves -- [laughs] -- almost invisible, I would say, but you know, out of the, out of the limelight, and do only what we had to do. And then when we went to the restaurant it was a different story, because we were Japanese and all our customers were hakujin, and well, of course, they didn't like us because we were Japanese. So there was a lot of prejudice there that -- people start to come in, see that we're Japanese, then walk out. But that, that I remember. But other than that, I don't remember.

AI: So, did your father's restaurant lose a lot of business that way?

RI: Oh yes, I'm sure. Because up 'til then, for a couple years we were real busy because there were lot of workers going to Bremerton and it was before the Japanese, Pearl Harbor. And there were a lot of... yeah, we were busy. He was doing well. And all of a sudden with the Pearl Harbor, then business fell way down, because we were Japanese.

AI: And what about at school? Did you receive any negative treatment when you went back to school?

RI: No, I don't remember any negative treatment, no. No. I think that the students in those days weren't like students now where they protest and, I don't remember any uprising or any protest groups. Or if there were, I probably stayed away. I think I'm the kind who avoids conflict and stays away.

DG: Was church normal?

RI: Church? I think church was normal. But the church was a place where a lot of the Japanese families congregated in order to get support and then they also used the church to store some of their things. I think, I think that our Baptist church gym must have held some things that the evacuees left. Then there was Reverend Andrews, who was very supportive of the Japanese people. And of course he was all for the Japanese and even relocated to near Minidoka. Well, I'm sure that the church had to be supportive, because it was, except for Reverend Andrews, we were all Japanese, so... I remember going to, to our church to get our inoculation. I'm not sure where we got our shots, but we all had to have some typhoid shots.

DG: In your family, who took charge as to what you needed to do?

RI: Oh, my father and mother. Yeah, the first thing we had to do was destroy things. So I think that, I'm sure we didn't have any guns, but I think cameras were... and we had to bring them to this jail site which was on Yesler and about Fourth or Fifth Avenue. Fourth Avenue, there was a jailhouse and we all had to bring things there, probably brought, I don't know, books, maybe. Cameras, pictures.

AI: Do you remember throwing things away or burning up any Japanese things?

RI: Well probably, probably the pictures were burned. Maybe pictures of the Emperor and Empress. And I don't know... maybe old-time pictures, I don't know. I think my mother took care of most of that because, except that maybe as English-speaking children, we might have helped her interpret what the orders were. But actively, actively doing something, I don't remember.

AI: So, in December of '41, were you the oldest child living at home then? Because Bessie was already married, is that right?

RI: Now let's see, December of '41. No, my sister was back from Japan, 'cause she was going to UW.

AI: But she hadn't gotten married yet?

RI: No. She got married when we had to be evacuated. See, there, there was a flurry of marriages around that spring before the May 11th evacuation because a lot of the girls and boys who were going around together, they suddenly got worried that they might get separated and be sent to different camps. So then my sister was going around with her husband and she didn't know where he would go, or even if we went to the same camp, it might be a different area. So, let's see... May 11th, she probably got married in April, in our living room. And I think Reverend Andrews came. He probably married a lot of the couples. And then she moved away, so when we were evacuated she was not with us. And when we went to Puyallup she was in Area A and I think we were in Area D. So we didn't communicate too much.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.