<Begin Segment 15>

MA: So I wanted to talk a little bit about Pearl Harbor and the day, December 7, 1941.

SE: Oh, yes.

MA: What are your memories of that day, and hearing about the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

SE: It was a big shock, and there were, the busses from Fort Lewis dropped all the soldiers off at the restaurant. So we were just swamped with GIs all day and every day. I had to weave my way through the, through the soldiers that hung around the restaurant. Many of them just hung around with cups of coffee is all, you know.

MA: Were they sent into Seattle to, like, protect the city?

SE: I don't know. I guess so, I don't know, they were, they were all over. I think, too, that they didn't know what to do themselves, except to see that there was order, I guess. Of course, the FBI was rounding people up and things like that. So when the people in the Japanese community asked Dad to speak to them at the, at the chamber of commerce there, my sister told him that, stay away, because she said, "They're looking for Japanese leaders to put them in." But he said that, just to calm the people's nerves, you know, and to tell people to stay calm and wait for orders to find out what we're supposed to do. And not get excited and do things that's not necessary.

MA: Was your father ever approached by the FBI?

SE: No, he never was. But I had a cousin that was married to a man that worked for, like the Furuya company, that did trading with Japan and Japanese firm, I know he was taken the first night. And because he was taken in, I know the wife was having a terrible time because they froze their assets, and she couldn't get the money. And so my cousin hung herself, they, she committed suicide, 'cause she was desperate, she didn't know what to do. They seized her husband, she had no money, everything was, so she just hung herself. And Dad had quite a terrible time because he had to tend to her funeral and things. But I could see where she had a young son, and having her husband seized like that, and not knowing what was happening to her, why...

MA: What happened to her son?

SE: Her son, her sister took him. Her sister was Mrs. Tura Nakamura, so he was quite a leader in the Seattle, he was on, at that time, he was announcing for the Japanese community on... what was it? It was radio? Yeah. So, yeah, it was a difficult time.

MA: Yeah, and I think that highlights the fear and anxiety that was going through the community.

SE: Oh, yeah, not knowing.

MA: How were your, your parents during that time? Did they talk with you much about what was going on, or what they thought about things?

SE: No. Well, I know they were talking about, a lot about so-and-so having been picked up.

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