<Begin Segment 17>

MA: So let's talk about Pearl Harbor and that day, December 7, 1941. Do you remember what you were doing when you heard about the news?

KB: Yes, I remember exactly. As you know, we were on a farm, so on that day we were bunching onions. And when we worked like that, especially my brothers, liked to have the radio on. So then they had some kind of music, and the program was interrupted by this announcement that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. And of course it was shocking to everybody, and we sort of stopped work for a while, but then we continued and spent the rest of the day the best we could.

MA: Were your parents with you bunching onions and listening?

KB: Yes, uh-huh, because this was wintertime, so there wasn't any outside work that they could do, so we were in, like, in the barn I think. We were together bunching onions.

MA: What was their reaction to the news?

KB: Oh, they were shocked also. They had no idea that anything like this would happen. And that night, it was kind of a disturbing day for us, and, but we got through and then everybody had gone to bed, and about midnight, there was a knock on the door. And I was the one who got up to see who was at the door, and here were these three big men, I mean, they really looked huge to me at that time. They were... I'm not sure exactly if they were state patrol, they were officers, and they kind of pushed open the door and came in and started searching around the house, and then they asked where my father was, and he was already in bed, so I had to tell them he was in bed. And woke him up, told him to get dressed. And then in the meantime, one of them went through all our papers, books, took a bunch of stuff, and also took my father with them. And I said, "Where are you going? Where are you going?" "Oh, we'll let you know. We'll let you know," they didn't give us any information. And it was not 'til the next day that we found out that he was at the immigration station. And it was really a very frightful day for us. Just unbelievable what could happen to somebody in this country.

So the next day -- that was Sunday -- and then Monday we had to talk about, "What are we going to do?" And my mother said, "All right, you're going to school. No use in sticking around at home, you go to school," so we all went to school. And actually, the reaction of our friends was, of course, shock also, but they had no bad feelings towards me. It was, it was the Japanese in Japan who had done this. So I didn't feel, at least from my friends, I didn't feel any kind of antagonism towards me.

MA: What was the feeling like in general on campus on Monday after Pearl Harbor?

KB: I think, I think it was upsetting to everybody, but I don't think it was personal against any of the students at school. I think it was all towards Japan and the Japanese.

MA: So you didn't feel like you were sort of looked at as...

KB: The enemy? No, I certainly didn't feel that way.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.