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TI: So let's, let's move to December 7, 1941. How, where were you when you heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

RE: Well, we were pretty much still... you know, we used to sleep in. The church bus never came 'til about ten-thirty. You know, as Baptist church goes, the service would go anywhere from service... church service would go from eleven o'clock 'til maybe one o'clock, long. And us kids used to go to, you know, be half asleep and still jump on the rickety old church bus at about ten-fifteen and then take us to church. So it was close to ten o'clock, because my mother was yelling at us to get ready for Sunday school. And my dad was in his old rocking chair listening to his shortwave Philco radio. And he said planes, Japanese planes were attacking Pearl Harbor, we had no idea what he was talking about. But my mother did, apparently.

TI: And when your dad told you this and your mom kind of knew, I mean, what was their reaction? What did you see?

RE: Well, us kids, we were, we were just watching all this commotion. But I know my dad ran out and talked to the other menfolks, and they were all, there was just a huge commotion about what's going to happen to us, and all that kind of talk ensued. But later, as the day wore on -- I mean, there were constant discussions, especially the menfolks, and my mother would talk to the other women. But for us kids, we had no real understanding.

TI: Well, how about your older siblings? Do they ever talk about or recollect what it was like?

RE: Well, you know, my brother was gone to Los Angeles, Hank, and then I don't know... Amy, I'm not sure she was around. She used to go to Long Beach to, with the Kano family, she learned to be a seamstress and all that, so I don't recall seeing her around, I don't know. But no, we didn't give it much thought, but other than that, late in the afternoon, somebody came and said, "You can't go to school," so that was that. And my dad did go to work that Monday morning and came right back with his lunch pail. And the rest of the men, they were not welcome back to work.

TI: Do you remember that when your father came back from work that first day, or Monday, and what that was like, what he was...

RE: Well, the menfolks got together, they were concerned about how they were gonna feed the families. That was it.

TI: So were they fired from the, the railroad company, or were they just on leave, or what was...

RE: They were just let go temporarily because they were told, "We'll tell you when you can come back," so that was the end of that. That was an issue because of the railroad pension many years later. The circumstances, were they fired? No, they weren't fired, they were just relieved because of the potential problems.

TI: And during that time, do you recall any sort of incidences with the townspeople? After Pearl Harbor...

RE: Yeah, we certainly were verbally threatened. And so pretty much, the sheriff's department said, told us to be vigilant during the nighttime, have somebody stay awake and watch for any incidents. I don't recall too many things that went on during the night other than later.

TI: So did any other families, do you recall, like an event that they were harassed or something, that you can recall?

RE: Not really, no.

TI: So after --

RE: We pretty much kept to ourselves for fear, fear for our lives.

TI: So after Pearl Harbor, did you ever go back into town, or other people go back into town through the tunnel?

RE: Oh, yeah, because the grocer, the little store that he had, promised that we can get whatever we wanted, we'll put it on credit. He trusted the Japanese families implicitly, that they would repay him. So if it wasn't for him, I didn't think we could have survived all those many days and weeks.

TI: That's good. You mentioned earlier that there was this, sort of, pent up, already dislike of the Japanese railroad workers because of the, of the strike situation years, years before. I think you also, earlier we'd talked about how the, I think the New Mexico National Guard, they were...

RE: Uh-huh, they were shipped out to the Philippines.

TI: Right.

RE: And so the Japanese troops had already invaded the Philippines before Pearl Harbor was attacked as you know. And word came back that some of these National Guardsmen were brutalized and all that, started filtering back. So there was definitely a hate campaign, and then war hysteria even fueled the fire, so to speak.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.