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TI: But let's talk about, so December 7, 1941, the day that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. How did you find out that Japan --

MH: Oh, I was in New York then.

TI: What were you doing in New York?

MH: By that time, 1941... oh, no, I was in New York when it was -- excuse me. I was in New York when the war ended.

TI: Yeah, okay. So when it started...

MH: Right. When the war started, we were living up on Thirty-first Avenue, and there were three boys from Fort Lewis visiting, and we were all gonna go skiing.

TI: So these were three Japanese American --

MH: Japanese boys, who were...

TI: Who were training in the military, so they were enlisted in the army.

MH: At Fort Lewis. And then it was Sunday, wasn't it? And so they got the day off, so they came to our house, and usually we get together and eat. They were there, and I was preparing to go skiing, but the news came over, so the boys were instructed to take the closest transportation back to Fort Lewis. I never saw them again except for one, one of the boys. They had to rush back to Fort Lewis, and, of course, we were in shock and there was not much we could do. So we curtailed everything, all our plans. And I was just wondering why we were up there. We were on Thirty-first Avenue in a house up there. I can't... and why was I down on Seventeenth Avenue? I don't know.

TI: But I'm curious -- not worrying about where you were exactly -- but did you think back to the people in Japan that you knew and with the war starting? What, what were some of the thoughts swirling about your head that day?

MH: I don't think so. I think I was pretty self-absorbed. I was not a very worldly person at that time, and everything I've -- and I've been an activist all my life, I mean, not all my life, ever since leaving the West Coast, I've been an activist, and I participated in many marches and stuff. So I don't think I had deep thoughts at the time, just scared.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.