<Begin Segment 9>

TI: Well, when, when you were a teenager, about thirteen, December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Do you recall that day and what --

TA: I sure do. [Laughs]

TI: So why don't you tell me, describe that day for us.

TA: That day, it was Sunday, so we went to church.

CO: Oh, they were Christians, also.

TA: Yeah, my father was a Christian, by the way. He, he converted from a Buddhist to being a Christian. And by the way, the Yamato colony was basically Christian. The, they even had the Christian church and things like that.

TI: What denomination? When you say "Christian," was it like Methodist or Presbyterian?

TA: Well, it was Presbyterian, but I think he was a Methodist, because people in that area were Methodists. But our only Christian church was a Presbyterian church. But we went, and I went there every Sunday, got my little pin, and, and one of the great privileges was to go up there and ring the bell. And so the pastor says, "Okay, it's your turn." So Tosh and I, we just ran up there and swung the, pulled that, that rope and made the darn thing, and that bell will ring and resound throughout the community, and great fun.

TI: So this was the first thing, like, Sunday morning you guys would go there.

TA: That was Sunday. And then we came back from church, and my father was there, and he says, "Japan attacked Pearl Harbor." That was the first indication that there was any, anything wrong. The second indication was, he says, he had a bunch of documents and things like that, and he says, "Help me burn 'em." So, well, we spent all day just burning things. Pictures, newspaper articles, anything that related to Japan, he burned 'em.

TI: What were you thinking while this was happening?

TA: What was I thinking? Says, "We better hurry up and burn this thing." I mean, especially the stove with all the -- you know, at that particular time, I wasn't thinking of why Japan... well, I'll back up. My father told me, told Tosh and I about the situation, because he loved it. He, he had a map on, behind, behind his office, and he had pins stuck there, and he was saying, "Well, this is what is happening in Manchuria," or, "this is what's happening in China," and this is, you know, the oil embargo and things like that. That the United States and Britain is doing this and the, Japan is trying to expand and gain resources. He, he explained that. In fact, there was a couple of occasion where he says, "You know, there might be some trouble between Japan and the United States." At that time I just thought that it was something economical, nothing like a war. But then it's, when he was burning things like that --

TI: Well, going back to that, so he had his map and the pins, again, how, how did he get all this information? Where was he getting this information?

TA: He was a, he was an avid reader. He read newspapers and magazines. I mean, he, and he listened to the short-wave radio. So he, he kept up with, with news. He, he loved it. I mean, that was kind of his life.

TI: Now, he could do both English and Japanese. Did he get any news from the English sources, also?

TA: English sources, yeah.

TI: So things like the San Francisco, the New York Times, or...

TA: Newspapers, and, and the Japanese newspapers. And he read 'em. I think he read 'em to impress probably his friend Shibata, because Shibata would come over and then they'll talk about it and discuss the world situation. And so, he was interested in history.

TI: I'm curious; did he ever comment on the differences between what the American papers were saying and the Japanese news sources?

TA: No.

TI: In terms of, were there any differences or anything?

TA: No, no. He didn't discuss any news analysis or difference between -- all he, you know, he just, at our age, he didn't go into any deep discussion, he just wanted us to understand. I guess as an educator, he just wanted to keep us informed, keep us abreast. Probably did that so that we could do better in school, to know what the world situation was about. But, yeah, he, he briefly gave us a sort of a run-down as to what's, what's happening.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.