Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Hiroshi Kashiwagi Interview
Narrator: Hiroshi Kashiwagi
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Klamath Falls, Oregon
Date: July 3, 2004
Densho ID: denshovh-khiroshi-02-0011

<Begin Segment 11>

AI: Okay, so just before the break, you had mentioned that then you had returned from L.A., gotten back home, and at that point, your father, father's illness was getting worse, and so you were helping your brother with the, the farm work. And was that working with tree pruning, or sharecropping?

HK: Yes, tree, tree pruning.

AI: And then at that time, I think you mentioned in an earlier conversation that you were, you and your folks were somewhat aware of the war in Europe and the war in Japan, partly because your parents got their news from the Japanese newspaper.

HK: Right.

AI: And so that would have been, you graduated in 1940, so the news that year would have been probably a lot of Japan's military actions.

HK: Yeah. And all of the goings-on with Washington, and I remember that Kurisu came, then Nomura, I think, came, and then by that time they were in Washington, and then Pearl Harbor happened. [Laughs] So that, yeah. People said that they were there just to occupy them and distract them while Pearl Harbor was... but, of course, Roosevelt had already planned the whole thing. [Laughs]

AI: Well, before, before you heard about Pearl Harbor, did you have any sense yourself that perhaps the U.S. and Japan might be at war with each other eventually?

HK: I, I didn't expect a war to happen, yeah. So it was a surprise.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.