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TI: But before we go there, so, in the summer, is it the summer between your junior and senior year, you went to Japan? Is that when you went to Japan?

FK: Right.

TI: And what was the occasion for going to Japan? Why Japan?

FK: Oh, my dad had passed away a couple years before that, so the relatives wanted my mother to bring back half of the ashes so they could bury it there, you know how they do in Japan. And so we took it, we took it back, not realizing that war was so imminent. Anyway, we went right after school, and we were gonna come back end of August, but they froze, remember they froze all these assets in July here, the Japanese assets. Anyway, there was no ship going or coming, so we couldn't get back. But in, so I thought we were gonna stuck, be stuck there, which was very frustrating for me. But end of October, I think it was, they only gave us about three days. They said the Hikawa-maru was leaving from Yokohama to come to Seattle, and if anybody wanted to go back, to get, make arrangements right away. So I was in Tokyo with my mother's friend, and she was taking me around sightseeing at that time. So I ran, rushed over to Yokohama and made arrangements at the American consulate, we had to go over there. And so we got on, on the boat, but they told us that they didn't guarantee us that we'd get here. So it was real eerie, because as soon as we got here, we were lucky enough to get here to Seattle, and they took all of us off, all the baggages off, and right after that, the boat had to leave. And then coming over here, we couldn't open the portholes, anything, it was just kept dark, I don't know, probably because air raids or whatever. And, but we got back, so we were lucky. But when I was in Japan, then I realized the war was really imminent as far as the Japanese were concerned.

TI: Yeah, that's what I wanted to ask you about. So in the United States when I talk to people, they were, like, totally surprised...

FK: Right.

TI: ...that there would be war with Japan. In Japan, it sounds like, they were...

FK: To me, it seemed like it, yeah.

TI: ...ready, or they knew that something was gonna happen.

FK: And Niseis were not that welcomed over there in those days. And especially when I was there and Mrs., this Mrs. Matsura, anyway, she, my mother's friend, took me around Kamakura, you know. And in those days, they had a horse and buggy, and so she put me on there, and we were going around. And these young kids came around and they called us foreigners, you know, gaijin, and "Get out," and I was so scared. And then she told me, Mrs. Matsura says, "Well, just be calm, don't, just ignore them." And she did, she told me to do that, so I just sat there quietly but it was really scary. I mean, that's how they were. And then...

TI: Now, how would they know that you were...

FK: The way, well, we had dresses, you know, I guess it was the clothes, the type of clothes we wear. Right away, and she was a, sort of a stylish woman anyway, but it was, I was scared. [Laughs] And then I had a girlfriend in Kobe who had gone back to Japan not too long before that, and when I was in Osaka with my uncle's place, I took a ride over there. She told me to come and visit her, so went over there and spent the whole day. And halfway back, returning the air raid siren goes on, and everything, you know, the train didn't stop, they put all the curtains, you know, they put all those black drapes and curtains down, and the whole city went black. But the train got into the station in Osaka and I didn't know what to do. I thought, "Now, shall I walk home? What am I gonna do?" If I walk home I was gonna be arrested or what. [Laughs] But I walked home, well, to where Uncle's home was, 'cause it wasn't too far from the station. And they were just worried where I was, I was at the time. But that's the things, those are the things that happened. And so I knew that something was gonna happen.

TI: Now, the air raid, when that goes off, air raid siren, who, who would they... who would be attacking Japan at that point?

FK: Well, I assumed it must be the Americans.

TI: So they were, so was it like... what's the right word, a drill, or is the real, they thought that it was real?

FK: Well, their practice, it's a drill, but it's like, if it's the real thing coming, you know. So the whole city goes black, it was real eerie. [Laughs]

TI: Did you ever talk to anyone while you were in Japan about a possible war between Japan and the United States?

FK: No, because you know, we were, I was still a senior in high school, and none of us here expected anything like that, no. But the funny thing, another thing that happened when we reached Japan, see, my mother and this other lady had, from the Nichiren Church, they were donating... I can't remember exactly what, but I think bandages and different things for the people in Japan, you know, to take to the main church, Nichiren Church. It was near Fujiyama Mountain, and so from, when we reached there, to Tokyo, we stayed at the hotel, and they were gonna, we took a train to that place, you know, wasn't too far from there. And then there was a knock on the hotel room, and these two men come in and started questioning my mother, just questioning her about why we're coming there and where we're going and, "What are you taking up there?" And my mother answered all the questions, it was like an FBI. And then same thing happened to this other lady. And so we got on the plane -- train, and there they were, somebody was following us all the way to the, to the, you know, the main Nichiren, where the church or temple. And it was, I just thought, "Now, what is going on?" So it was really, all the way through, while I was there, I thought that something was going to happen, and it surely did. It was really eerie.

TI: So when you were in Japan, who'd you stay with?

FK: Well, we, my mother had a brother at that time in Osaka, so we stayed there. And then Hiroshima is where she had a sister, a younger sister, so we stayed there, too.

TI: And do you recall your mother having any conversations with her siblings about possible war? Did she ever talk about that, like what other people were saying?

FK: That I don't know. I never I listened to, but I'm sure, I'm sure something was said, you know. They must have known in Japan.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.