<Begin Segment 16>

BF: Now, we ask this question usually of all of our interview, interview subjects, we ask, on the day Pearl Harbor was bombed, and so you're a senior getting ready to graduate, do you remember hearing it? Do you remember...

AS: Well, you know, the funny thing is... wait, I'll stop and think. Okay, I was going to the University of Washington at that time, that first semester -- first quarter, I was going -- because what I recall... yeah. Okay, what I recall is -- and I would catch the, 'cause we didn't have bus connections, I think we only had streetcars. But anyway, then I'd walk from my house on Twenty-sixth to Twenty-third and East Madison, where I could catch the bus to go to the university. And I had heard that morning about the order of the, that the President had, what he said about the Japanese Americans have to be interned, and I was just, I just couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it. And somehow or other, I don't know if I talked to somebody, another student who might have been waiting there, because I sort of think I did, and there was an African American student who also went to the university, and I would, we would talk. And, and I'm sure I must have expressed it to her, these concerns.

BF: So hearing about the evacuation orders.

AS: Yeah.

BF: What about the bombing of Pearl Harbor? 'Cause that, for...

AS: Well, that was, yeah, it was shocking.

BF: Yeah, so do you remember the moment you heard about that event?

AS: Yeah. Well, should have, but I'm not sure where I was. But I know it was just sheer shock that somebody would bomb the United States. It just seemed terrible. Of course, at that time, Japan was a very aggressive power in the world, and as far as our country was concerned, we're thought very highly of because of the aggression of the powers who were, decided that I've got to... so it was... there was a feeling of anger, but it was at the country that was doing this, not at individual people, because we know the individual soldiers have to do what they do because they don't have a choice. So, but yes, I was just really just shocked, because we always felt so safe in the United States. Atlantic Ocean on one side, Pacific on the other, yeah, we're safe here. And so that really was a terrible shock.

BF: Was there, was there fear, too, like a sense of more, being more vulnerable?

AS: Well, I think there was a certain amount, but, although I don't remember that bothered me -- I mean, that I considered that we were really vulnerable, although there were, I know things... I don't know what they were called, things that floated into Pacific side came ashore, that would have been from like, maybe a submarine or something, like a Japanese submarine. So there were some evidence that the Japanese were probably close to some of the borders, and I can't remember, something else was found. But I never felt... I guess I still didn't feel fear, and they didn't do like was done with our Patriot, home patriot, Patriot Act. Those alerts, which I think were so ridiculous, because I never knew, "What am I supposed to do now? I hope somebody knows what to do, but I sure don't know what to do." It was so ridiculous. I, so I didn't have... don't remember. I guess, "Who would want me?" [Laughs] Anyway...

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.