<Begin Segment 10>

AI: Well, then, of course, we have Sunday, December 7, 1941, and can you tell what happened on that day?

MN: Yeah, the whole world changed then. Well, my life changed. My father and mother were entertaining friends at the house, and I remember my mother sent me to the store to pick up something, and it was only about three blocks away from the house, and that's where I heard that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. And so I come running home and telling them about the news, and so we listened to the radio and then found out that that was true. And since it was too late to cancel the dinner party, they went ahead with it. And at that time, all his dinner that he used to have at home were for men only. I could never figure that out today. No women were invited, and my mother was a good cook, and she cooked a big meal, and they were enjoying their sake and everything, when suddenly the FBI entered the house unannounced. And they had a long list of names of the Japanese that they were supposed to be picking up, and it was amazing that every man in the, at the party was on the list except for one man, and so they were all arrested right then and there and taken into custody. We never knew where my father was taken, because we didn't have the connections that people have today, but, so we kept the porch light on every night hoping that he would come home, but he never did come home. So it was years later that we got reunited with my father.

AI: That must have been shocking.

MN: Yeah, it must have been hard on my mother, 'cause then she had to call all the people that were in attendance, to tell them where their husbands were. So it was quite an experience.

AI: What was going through your mind?

MN: I wasn't home at that time, so when I came home, I was shocked to see only one man left, and then they told me what had happened.

AI: So how did your mother manage after your father was taken away?

MN: She must have been a strong person, 'cause she was able to cope with it. But that would be so difficult to cope with all that, and I remember he was at Dearborn, that detention center for a while, and then he got shipped to Missoula Montana. And my mother and her friend went to Missoula, 'cause they wanted power of attorney for my father to get rid of the furnishings and automobile and things that we had to do before we were, left for camp. (Narr. note: My father was moved from Missoula, Montana to Ft. Stanton, Texas on 5/17/42, then transferred to Lordsburg, New Mexico on 6/18/42. He was eventually released in May of 1945.)

AI: Well, before he was removed to Montana, were you or your mother or anybody able to visit him at the detention center here in Seattle?

MN: Not that I know of, we never did visit him.

AI: So when that, that night of December 7th, all this had gone on, what was going through your mind as far as what might happen, your work, school?

MN: Well, then you really realize that the war was on, and we were caught right in-between, I would say. As far as what was going through my mind, I don't recall, but it was a frightening experience.

AI: Some families whose fathers were taken like yours had mentioned that they felt embarrassed, that somehow that it seemed like their father had done something wrong because he had been arrested. Was that anything that affected you?

MN: No, I didn't feel embarrassed about it, because he wasn't the only man that got picked up.

AI: And did you have any communication with your father, then, for the rest of that year, after he was picked up to the end of the year?

MN: Not that I recall.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.