<Begin Segment 5>

TI: Okay, so, let's, let's talk... so you're, let's talk about 1941. At that point, you were working on making destroyers and things like that. Was there a sense with you that the United States would be going to war soon?

DK: No, most of the, of course, the politicians who are trying, we were isolationists as a country at that time. And so it was, it was going to be hard for the President to even declare war unless something pretty drastic happened, it seemed to me. But as far as working on the, working on those destroyers was an experience that I figured that we must be figuring on getting into war, you know, somewhere down the line. And 'cause they had contracts from the Navy, and so that's what they were fulfilling and it was on Terminal Island, and it was, there was an all-Japanese population on the island. And the, on the way on and off was a drawbridge, or a boat, and so all the workers on the three shipyards had to go across the drawbridge to get there morning, and well, three shifts.

TI: How interesting. So the shipyard was on Terminal Island, and I guess to give some background, so Terminal Island was, was Japanese because a lot of them were fishermen and there were lots of fishing boats and families who lived on Terminal Island, prominent fishermen, but the shipyard was there. So every day you would go into this community. Was there much interaction between the ship workers, shipyard workers and the Japanese population?

DK: Not a lot. There was no, at that time, there wasn't any hostility that you could see. There was two fish canneries, and that's where most of the people worked either fishing or canning fish on that island.

TI: Okay, so... I'm going to jump to Pearl Harbor, the bombing. Or is there anything else before that you wanted to, to talk about in terms of the experiences in Los Angeles or on Terminal Island?

DK: 'Course, there were getting to be more servicemen around, and I had a brother who was in the Marines, had been in four years, and a cousin that was in the Navy, couple of 'em, and I lived in Long Beach at the time. And they were up to see a football game between UCLA and USC. And we were sitting in the stands when the announcement was made that Pearl Harbor had been bombed, and for all servicemen to immediately return to their bases.

TI: So this was on December 7th, a Sunday. So they, they played college football on Sundays back then?

DK: Yeah, yeah.

TI: Okay, so you were at a UCLA-USC football game when they announced it over the PA system.

DK: Right.

TI: When that happened, what were you thinking? What were your feelings when you heard that?

DK: Well, I figured it was a pretty dire situation and that if from what little I'd seen of the defenses we had, if their next move would happen the West Coast, we were, we were in grave danger.

TI: So explain that. When you say the, sort of the state of our defense on the West Coast, so my sense is you didn't think it was very good on the West Coast.

DK: No, there was Fort MacArthur, of course, right there, right close to San Pedro, and it was the only one that I knew of. We drove by it quite often, but...

TI: And going back to the stadium, so you were around lots of people when this announcement was made. What was the sense of the, of the crowd when that, when that happened?

DK: Well, immediately, I don't even remember whether they cancelled the game or not, but we left, 'cause my brother, they were in my vehicle and his car was at my apartment house. So I had to take him back and the urgency and the, I guess you'd call it patriotism or loyalty, man, they were, they were gonna get back to their base and do what they had to do, I mean, it was urgent. And, in fact, he drove his car so fast to get back there, he knocked a rod out and had to hitchhike the rest of the way. So it was that kind of atmosphere, I think. I think it's that point in time that the mindset changed. I know mine did and a lot of people around did. And the, now, it'd probably be something similar to the mindset of, of 9/11, brought the country together.

TI: So there was this sense of, even though it was a tragedy, I mean, in that tragedy pulling together and, and that feeling of camaraderie.

DK: Right.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2005 Densho. All Rights Reserved.