<Begin Segment 10>

TI: So let's go back to December 7th, you said you went to a basketball game, you went home.

FK: Heard it all over the radio.

TI: Yeah, did you talk at all with your, your mother about what was going on?

FK: Yeah, we talked about it, you know. She would say, oh, she was so disgusted, too, you know, and disappointed. And the thing was that they didn't know what was going to happen after that, but we certainly found out soon after that what was going to happen to all of us.

TI: Well, what did you think was going to happen during this, right after Pearl Harbor? What did you think?

FK: Well, gosh, I really don't remember exactly what I thought, but I think most of us were shocked about it, shocked, but we didn't ever think that we were gonna be put in a, a camp like that, be segregated into a camp or anything like that. We might, we thought we'd be facing a lot of segregation, you know, in town, but we never thought that we would have to evacuate like that.

TI: And so you mentioned right after Pearl Harbor, going back to school, things didn't really change that much.

FK: No, as far as...

TI: Did it, as those weeks went on, did it change at all, or was it still about the same?

FK: Well, I'm sure it did for people with business. Well, see, because by that -- well, we didn't have the business by then, so it was all right, but I'm sure it did. But we were still going to school, and you know, as far as my classmates, they weren't any different to me at that time, so I didn't feel that.

TI: Well, eventually there was notices put up that all persons of Japanese ancestry would need to leave Portland. So describe what Portland was like during that time for you and others.

FK: Well, I think the people who had businesses, it was kind of rough because they didn't know... well, homes, too, if they had homes, they didn't know whether to sell it or leave it. But I think most of them, if they had homes, I'm sure, I think they sold it. Because they didn't go back to their home after the war. And the businesses, too, they just gave it up, I think most of them that I know.

TI: And how about your family? What kind of things did you have to do to get ready?

FK: Well, see, my mother was widowed, we didn't really have much, we were in an apartment. So as far as we were concerned... but I had, we had to sell our, my piano and things like that, you know. But she, Nichiren Church where we stayed at the very end before the evacuation, it was close to the Nichiren Church. So the members stored most of their possessions or whatever they wanted to keep there. But most of them got rid of whatever they had, but whatever they wanted to keep, they put it in a trunk or whatever and then stored it at church. So that was there after the war.

TI: In that time after Pearl Harbor and before you were removed, the FBI came through and picked up a lot of the Issei men who were leaders in the community. Was that happening in Portland also?

FK: Oh, sure.

TI: And so describe what you knew about that, and what it...

FK: Well, it didn't affect us, so I really don't know. But my girlfriend's father was, Mr. Oyama was a publisher of the Japanese newspaper, he was taken and some of these leaders, you know, in the Japanese community, they were all taken. That's about all I know. Most of those men were all taken just like Seattle.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.