<Begin Segment 39>

TI: Okay, well, I wanted to go back to, it's interesting to me that after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, you're still able to make these deliveries to these outlying communities.

RM: Yes.

TI: I'm curious, as you were making deliveries, did you ever come across sort of anti-Japanese sort of feelings or sentiments from other people because they would see you out there in the countryside. Were you ever stopped or harassed because --

RM: Well not stopped, but go by there and they, "Hey, Jap," you know, something like that they yell at some people, but I didn't know, I didn't pay much attention, you see. Then, well, good thing my boss wasn't picked up by FBI. He was a little bit of connected, but as far as some organization he wasn't involved in much, so they didn't pick him up.

AI: So he --

RM: Didn't have to disband because all the customers, even there, they won't be able to pay. So I think he lost lotta money on credit, but some people might have paid back later, but he lost lot of money. But before that, he made a lot of money so he was rich, so, but I feel so sorry, so, last month's pay I refused to take a check, he wrote, but, "Just forget it."

AI: What was the last month that you worked for him? Was that January or February of '42?

RM: I don't remember, somewhere around there. I don't exactly remember. I didn't keep diary or anything, so, I should have but what happened was in the wartime I met the prisoner and things like that, get the names and address and things like that, but all lost and stolen and end up in probably Red Army's hand. But anyway, that's why I couldn't recall the names or since that passed a long time, especially at the time, around the war, all kind of excitement and different kind of opinion, people, Issei ask me, and some people say what to say in the paper, it's in the paper, but what the radio say and things like that I was still keeping, but I just left the thing there. So I lost... only thing I kept was my high school buckle, belt buckle and dictionaries. And this is in the Caerulea, the yearbook, high school. And very few --

TI: What about the shortwave radio, what happened to that?

RM: I think my, I left it with my friend and what happened was, see, I had other clothing and things like that and some tools, hand tools, things like that. When I... not supposed to come to West Coast. So went out graduate school, had free time, I made a trip to West Coast. Not supposed to come down, but nobody, just uniform, so I get on the train and came down. Also, I went to Denver, Colorado, I never been before but I had a, one of the customer in Venice... oh, no, Santa Monica, I think it was, yeah, Santa Monica, had a cute girl. So I thought it might be future wife so I didn't know how doin' it I wanna stop by. So I went to Denver, and later on, I found out she married to somebody, but I inquire about the people find out that in Berkeley had a store there so I asked a lady in Denver, "Did you know certain, certain name," said, "yes." And...

AI: Oh, but that was later, that was --

RM: That was later.

AI: Right.

RM: But that was still, that's in, before I went to war, she did in the school.

AI: Well, let me --

RM: So this is the wartime, only, only about a year or around there, because first went to assembly center.

<End Segment 39> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.