<Begin Segment 35>

AI: Well, now, what about that, the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed, December 7, 1941? What were you doing and how did you hear about the news?

RM: Oh, yeah, it was a Sunday so didn't work. And about, I think about nine o'clock, I think, I was gonna go get my hair cut. So I get into my own car and turn the radio on and it says that Pearl Harbor bombed. Well, that was a surprise. Then when I went there they didn't know that either, the neighbor, so there's gonna be a war. And then Roosevelt declare a war and I say, but...

AI: So when you first heard that on the radio, what was your first thought in your mind?

RM: Well, I thought it was a joke or something, you know, because I didn't expect it.

AI: Could you believe that Japan would actually attack the U.S.?

RM: No, I couldn't. I didn't, because I was in Japan and how things is, and how in United States everything advanced. And no comparison, see, because they, of course, they had a battleships and things like that I've seen because they come to Hiroshima Bay and I seen the battleships and things like that, but I didn't think they gonna fight. The first thing is, well, we have natural resources and they didn't have. They're already suffering and they have to import everything and, but the sugar and things like that come from Formosa and some like soy beans come from Manchuria, and, of course, Japan, too, but everything gotta import. Then all of a sudden blockaded and embargo and they're in no position, then they run out of fuel right away and so... but we had a, see, I notice, I go to Signal Hill and lotta oil, there's a well there and a dairy there. And see, we have natural resources and produce. And I know, but the Japanese people, they've been hearing just, I think, brainwash propaganda, so believe it. And I talked to other people and then they believe in what they said.

AI: They believed in the propaganda from the Japanese government?

RM: Propaganda Japanese imparted. And well, we did the same thing, see, Office of War Information, try to give a story but, you know, they don't, some of 'em believe but those don't believe it, see.

AI: Well, so, tell me, when you, then when you were -- that day, December 7th when you were talking to other people about this, what were people saying? Were you worried that something was going to happen to you because you're American citizen but you're --

RM: Well, never thought of that at that time, they never thought about evacuation or send us to assembly center. Nobody thought anything. No proclamation out, so, no exact order, but...

AI: But then --

RM: Kinda confusing because I hear on the radio and I saw the paper, then I saw the American paper and contradicting each other and, but I didn't believe the Japanese. I know there was propaganda because then the people fooled that... this NHK broadcast and shortwave, and, of course, the newspaper pick up some of... they print in big headlines and things like that.

AI: So then the next day, Monday, December 8th, President Roosevelt declared war on Japan.

RM: Uh-huh.

AI: And what did you think then, about that? Because you still had --

RM: Well, I understand it was the American point. If you're attacked, you have to do something to defend. So it's not just me. So I kinda mixed because I got a Japanese way of thinking, and also American way of thinking. So kinda mixed emotion or whatever. But I thought of American, but then people thinks I'm the Japanese, kinda, so I refrained from making any statements, either side get mad, so best not to say anything. That's one of the ideas, just to keep mouth shut and see, and some will disagree, some will agree, but I just... if they asked my opinion, sometime I, as long as it wouldn't hurt I just tell 'em. So that's my idea, so...

<End Segment 35> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.