<Begin Segment 8>

DM: Now, you mentioned that your father's activities with the kendokai got him in trouble, so what did you mean by that?

AM: Well, he was picked up by the FBI, I do not know what day, it's just like I don't remember the hills of Seattle when as a child, I walked those streets. I think that I do not remember, I think it's a selective forgetting, but I don't remember when he was picked up by the FBI. All I can tell you is that he was picked up in the middle of the night, the FBI came pounding at the door, and my dad opened the door and he let them in, and they immediately ransacked the house. They just took everything out of the cupboards, out of the dresser drawers, my sisters and, my sister and I shared a room and we shared a dresser, and I remember that when they left, they had everything in a pile on the floor in the middle of the room. And that was true of the rest of the house. They did not find, I think my father -- one of the reasons that I think he disappeared that day after war declared was I think that he must have gone to the kendokai and they were getting rid of papers. I think that's he... it's the most logical thing that they would do. However, the National Archives has those papers; they have the kendokai papers, so I don't, this is just something that I assume might have happened, but that might not have happened. All I know is that the National Archives has, today, papers from the kendokai in Seattle in those, from those years.

DM: So the FBI came and took your father away. Did you know where he had been taken?

AM: No. Did not know until quite a bit later, but the first stop that he probably made was to the detention center, which is, used to be part of the Smith Tower in Seattle, if you know, sort of a landmark. And part of it was in the prison, jail system, and I think that's where he probably went. And I remember that when they took him, he went in his pajamas and slippers. So the next day, or two days later, my mother and I gathered up -- we couldn't, first, he always had one of those old-fashioned razors, the kind that sharpen on a leather strap, and we were told that we had to buy a safety razor so I had no idea what a safety razor was. I remember going with my mother to buy safety razors to take to him, so we had to get safety razors, soap and towel and things like that and took him, but we could not see him, we just had to leave it at the desk. They told him, they told us that they would give it to him, but that we could not see him. So that's the, so the last time I saw him until 1944 was in, at Seattle that night that they took him.

DM: You mentioned that he was pretty much the sole provider for the family, so this must have had a big impact on the family.

AM: Well, the reason for my mother's hysteria was 'cause she was worried about how we were all going to be taken care of. And it was very hard for -- I can understand it. She did not speak English, or she spoke some English but not speak, could not say she spoke English. She had no job, and she, suddenly faced with having to take care of my sister and my brother and me. But when my father left, he said to me that it was my responsibility to take care of the family, so today my sister and my brother always say that I was very bossy, but I was given permission to be the head of the family. And so I took that very seriously, and I took care of my mother the best I could, and my brother and my sister, they all look at that period as just something we don't remember at all. But I remember being very responsible.

DM: That's an incredible responsibility for a sixteen-year-old girl to take on.

AM: Yeah, but I was stupid enough to think I could do it.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright ©2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.