<Begin Segment 17>

AI: Well, let's back up a little bit. So, after Pearl Harbor, then, there were some of the Issei Japanese men in the community --

MK: Yes.

AI: -- were picked up by the FBI right away.

MK: Right, right.

AI: Immediately.

MK: Right. He was not in the first sweep. So...

AI: What did you hear about the others, though? Were you aware that, or your parents were --

MK: Well, my father came back and he was sighing a relief. And he was naming off the people that were (...) picked up. And they didn't mean too much to me because they were such big leaders and I really had never known them personally. And I remember, he was very heavy with this. And it bothered him. But he was relieved. I could tell he was very relieved. And then, I think it was the second sweep when Singapore fell, that was the time when a second sweep, which was when my father and so many others were picked up.

AI: Well, before he was actually picked up, did you... did he or your mother say anything about the possibility that he might be taken? Or did he, I know that there were some men who actually had a suitcase packed.

MK: Oh, no, not to that extent, no. He didn't think so. But I remember he was concerned, he was shocked, and somewhat, he was relieved. But it was just, it seemed like it was just hanging, (...) dumbfounded. But he, I didn't see that he was packed. But I remember when the FBI actually came, though. He was searched, bodily searched, and he did have a wad of money, which was four hundred (or four thousand) or something. It was rolled bills. And, in those days, you know, we didn't have these drops, banks, drops or whatever, I guess. So he had it on his body, and of course they took, stripped him of everything. They searched all the kids' room, the back room, and then they came back to him and they told him to put something together. And the only thing I... just a regular brown bag, he threw his toilet articles in. And then he was off. There was no suitcase. And I think the picture shows that it's just a paper brown bag. It wasn't even full, it was just about a quarter full. And he just had, tucked it under his arms. But, yeah, I thought, I thought, "Gee, Papa's always the boss, always ordering people around," and now he was like a little puppy. He... other people were controlling him for a change, which I never saw, and that was a funny turnover of events. That, even as a kid, you feel, gee this is scary.

AI: Well, it must've been scary that these strange FBI people come in.

MK: Right.

AI: Did, did they identify themselves? Did they say, "We're the FBI?"

MK: Yeah, they did say it, and they flashed their FBI card. And the worst part, I felt, was, we had furniture, and you know the dust catcher under the sofa, when you lift over the sofa, underneath is a... they slit it open, you know, to see if anything was hidden. And they, we had albums stacked and they were thumbing through it and they ripped off a lot of pictures. And from what I... they didn't rip off all of 'em but I have some and they were pictures of the lumberyards, the business, the transactions as my father was doing. I have some that's leftover, which definitely tells the story that he was out in the (lumberyard) and that was his primary export item.

And I remember, I thought, well, they were after the money. So I even said, well, the piggy bank, I said, "Did you want the piggy bank?" To an FBI, I even said that to him. He said, "No, you're a U.S. citizen." So he didn't touch the piggy bank. And I thought, in a child's mind, you thought, well that's strange, he took my father's money but he didn't want my money. But he didn't look through, and my father said -- and then the way they would tell you, is, oh, you know, "We just need to take him down to the office to interrogate him a little further." And that was it. I mean, we thought, well you know, he hasn't done anything wrong, he'll be back. I mean, that's what I told myself, he'll be back. Well, he didn't come back.

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