<Begin Segment 13>

MA: Do you remember hearing for the first time about Pearl Harbor, about the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

SO: Uh-huh.

MA: What went through your mind when you heard this?

SO: Well, I didn't think too much of it myself, until they started talking about evacuation and this and that, then I got a little bit worried. But when that started, well, what really scared me was they had, I don't know if it was an actual rum-, I mean, actually going around or whether it was just a rumor, but somebody started spreading rumors that the FBIs were going to check up on all the Japanese people here in Spokane. I don't know how it started (or) who started it, and I thought, "Oh, my gosh," and I had, (as) I told you, I had all my valuable credentials from Japan and everything, and I took 'em all down (to) the basement and threw it in the furnace. So I haven't got nothing. I just have to tell people to take my word for it, can't prove anything. I burned it all up, (I) had a samurai sword there, and they said the FBI will throw you in jail if you have contraband, so (I) burned it, and of course, some of our clienteles, they had, they'd leave their packsack and things there and (suddenly) they die or something, and they'd leave guns, (clothing), and this and that. My dad (found) three or four pistols -- we didn't buy 'em, they just left them. And so I took them down to the (furnace), and burned them (but) nothing happened. It was just a rumor. Well, I guess some of the, there's a couple people here that were, they were thrown in camps. But other than that, I had no problems. No problems at all.

MA: But you definitely, from what you were saying, it seems like you definitely felt some sort of tension.

SO: Yeah, I did there for a while, yeah, especially when that rumor started going around. That's why in a way I wish I hadn't burned everything, now I can't prove anything.

MA: How much did you discuss these events, like the war, with your family or with your parents? Was there, did you discuss these events?

SO: Not, not very much. We didn't, because like I (said), we didn't have to evacuate or nothing. We ran the business same as usual, and nobody bothered us. FBI didn't bother us, no one bothered us. We just, I guess some of the people were, the outstanding so-called leaders of the Japanese community, a couple, three went to camps, but other than that, we never had any problems.

MA: Do you remember when they were taken away, those two?

SO: No, I don't remember, but it wasn't too long after Pearl Harbor, yeah, they rounded up, but I don't think there was too many. You should ask, I think Mas would have known, probably, more about that than I would. But I don't think there were too many, maybe two or three. No more than four, I don't think. But no, like I say, we didn't have any problems. We went about and done our own thing, and nobody bothered us.

MA: Going back a little bit, so you said there was this rumor that the FBI was going to come and take you away. Was there also similar feelings about being evacuated? Was there a sense that, oh, in Spokane we're gonna be taken away?

SO: No, because they said that they were sending people to Spokane. See, this was Zone C, they're evacuating Zone A and B, that's the coast, so that's the reason we didn't worry too much, 'cause I knew we didn't have to leave. They were coming, people were coming here from the coast.

MA: But people were, how aware were they of what was going on with the camps and everything like that?

SO: Oh, I don't know. It's... I don't know how to describe that.

MA: Or how -- did you have a lot of knowledge about what was going on with the evacuation, with the camps themselves?

SO: Only what we read in the, read in the papers, you know. The headlines, the West Coast evacuated, all Japanese, yeah. And so we went by mainly what was in the papers.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.