<Begin Segment 7>

MA: So I guess I wanted to ask you about Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. You were fourteen?

KY: Fifteen.

MA: Fifteen. Do you recall anything about that time, when Pearl Harbor was bombed?

KY: It was on a Sunday, and I think, being a Sunday, I wonder if we were at church, and we came home, and we heard about it, it was over the radio. I don't, what time did it happen Sunday?

MA: Morning.

KY: I have no, I don't know, but I, all we had was the radio, so we heard it over the radio.

MA: Do you remember having any particular feelings about, about it?

KY: Not us, but I'm sure our parents did. We, we just didn't think. I mean, it just happened. I didn't even know where Pearl Harbor was at that time. [Laughs]

MA: Did your parents ever mention it to you, or did you ever overhear them maybe talking about what had happened, anything like that?

KY: I'm sure they were concerned. I know my dad sent a telegram to Japan right away, and I think I still have that telegram. I have, I have seen it, that you could only write a one-liner or something, and I think it said, "Family safe, all together," or something like that. I do remember he sent a telegram to Japan.

MA: To his family in Japan?

KY: Uh-huh.

MA: Did you notice any change in the way people in Wapato treated you or your family at all?

KY: No, they -- no, they didn't... you mean the Caucasians? No, they didn't treat us any different, but I know there was one kid that always used to tease us. He would call us "slant-eye" and all that thing, you know. But he was, he was a bad kid anyway, and he lived just down the street from us, so we see him every day. But he's just one of those radicals that liked to tease Japanese. I don't think he even knew we were Japanese, he just liked to tease kids. But I, I didn't come across any discrimination or anything.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.