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TI: Well, let's go to the outbreak of war. So Sunday, December 7, 1941, where were you when you heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

RY: Oh, I was, I was at a truck farm, and, where their, his family was, was gone in California, and he didn't have any... well, he didn't have anybody really working for him, so he hired me before the -- naturally, before the war.

TI: And so who, who was this? Who hired you?

RY: Mr. Hayashi. His, his daughter was, is married to the former police, police chief... what's his name now? The former, former police, Spokane police chief. Anyway, when, when the war broke out, I was working there, and we had, there was another Caucasian working with us. And that day, December 7th, I didn't feel good that they started the war, but this Caucasian, he liked to talk a lot, and he kept on talking and talking. I don't know why, but I didn't blow up on him, but I decided, hey, I'm quitting. So I quit that day, and then I went back to work a couple days later.

TI: Go back to when you said this Caucasian was "talking and talking." What was he saying? What kind of things was he saying?

RY: Well, I don't, I don't really remember what the heck he was talking about, but he was talking about the war, he was talking about, "You shouldn't have done this, and you shouldn't have done that," and you know, usually what they all talk about. I had just, it just got, got into my... I just didn't feel good either because Japan was having war with U.S. And...

TI: Well, was this other worker sort of making it hard on you? Was he kind of, sort of accusing you or doing anything like that?

RY: No, oh, no. Nothing like that. But, you know, I didn't feel good, I just didn't feel good that Japanese started war. Not that I was... what you'd call patriotic for either side, as far as that goes, and I just didn't feel good. So I don't know why, but I just blew up inside me and I just quit for that day, went home. And I says, well, then I came back after a couple days, and he was still working there. And then, and then maybe a, maybe a week later, his family was relocating back up to Spokane, so that's when I naturally left that, that was, I mean, I left that truck farm.

TI: I'm sorry, who was relocating back to Spokane? Mr. Hayashi's family?

RY: His family. His daughters, he had, he had three or four daughters, and he had one son, but his son wasn't, wasn't a farmer. [Laughs] He didn't like it, so I guess he, he was kind of left out or something, I don't know. But no, the rest of the daughters were all down in California, and then they, the war broke out, and in order to relocate someplace else, they decided to come back to Spokane. So yeah, I kind of kid them about, "You made me lose my job." [Laughs] Yeah, we laugh about that, but yeah, he's a... right after that war, I stayed there for about a week, and that was it. And then, then after that, I didn't do much.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.