<Begin Segment 12>

TI: Now, from your perspective, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, I think they closed school for a few days.

TA: Yeah, for a few days, yeah.

TI: When school reopened, what was it like for you going back to school?

TA: Horrible. I mean, here's the kids that were your friends. And you go there and say, "Hi, Bill. Hi, Joe." And they're looking at you and says, "You dirty Jap. You slant-eye. Why don't you go back where you belong?" You know? Very hostile, very antagonistic. And you try to gaman, you try to hold back, and you wondered, "Why are they doing this? I didn't do anything. Japan's the one that attacked, not me." And so it was a very trying time. Got into a few fights, arguments, and they never associated with us anymore. They stayed behind, whispering, looking at us suspiciously. Never, they never did that before. But in this case, it was a tremendous -- and it was a 180 turnaround, for one reason or another.

TI: I've heard stories with other people about how, in this situation, sometimes the bullies would pick on the smaller, the younger, the weaker people. Was that happening at your school, also?

TA: Oh, yeah. Then the class bully, he, he came over there and spit at me and says, you know, like, "Take me on." And I got to a point where I couldn't stand it anymore, and luckily I took a little bit of judo and I gave him a good old koshinage and put him down and choked, give him a choke hold and said, "Say uncle." Then, of course, the teacher came by and saw us, stopped the fight, took us to the principal. I says, "Oh, my God, what am I gonna do now?" Says, "I'm going to be in deep, deep problem." Because one thing about my father, my father supported the school, and if the teacher said you were bad, you were bad. And you get scolding at school and when you go back, you get a double punishment. I mean, so I said, "Oh, my God, I'm gonna really get it this time." And so, but the principal sort of says, "Oh, all right, go back to school." Like if nothing happened. So I go back to school and the kids all looking at me and they didn't say anything, they just looked at me in their way. But my Japanese friends, I mean, my Nisei friends, they had a smile on their face. [Laughs] They didn't say anything, but you could see a smile on their face. And I kind of felt good about it. But when I went home, I says, "Oh, my God." And I says, says, "What happened?" I says, "I got a -- " well, I had few [gestures to face] -- "What happened?" "Got in a fight." "Why?" "They called me a Jap." "Oh. Oh, okay." [Laughs] I didn't get that scolding.

TI: It's almost like he anticipated that there was going to be trouble, perhaps, and...

TA: Well, whatever it was, I mean, he, he just didn't react the same way he normally did. He just says, "Good." So, it was good.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.