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TI: Okay, so before we go there, why don't we go to December 7th. So when December 7, 1941, that Sunday, do you recall that day and what happened?

JN: Yeah. For some strange reason, I seem to recall -- and why I remember this particular incident I have no idea. But I seem to recall there was a kiawe tree near my house and I seem to recall climbing that tree because I wanted to look at the, to see if I could see the smoke coming from Pearl Harbor. Somewhere, somebody must have told us there's some bombing or burning in Pearl Harbor, and for some reason I recall climbing that tree. And the other thing I recall clearly is although it was a Sunday, some of the workers were at our house where they were working. They worked, in those days, I guess, Sunday wasn't that big of a deal. I remember our number one carpenter who worked for my dad was there. And the one thing I remember was I think he listened to the radio, he must have heard what happened, that he was from Japan. And the story I hear, I guess, he just disappeared. He took off. I guess that shook him up a lot, he just took off, and we never saw him after that. That's what I remember about December 7, 1941.

TI: And reactions from your father or mother, do you recall them saying anything or doing anything?

JN: Not one bit. I don't recall reactions at all.

TI: How about your older brothers? Did they say anything to you, do you remember, or Bert?

JN: No, not at all. I don't recall.

TI: And do you recall thinking anything about, like, your brothers or sisters in Japan, and what might happen to them or you or anything like that?

JN: I'm sure it never occurred to me. I was too self-centered to be worried about them. [Laughs] No, I don't think I had any thoughts about that.

TI: So in the weeks following December 7th, did anything change in terms of the patterns of your life or the family life?

JN: The only thing I -- oh. The first thing I seemed to recall is we had to cover our windows, I think, or blacken it or something, so that a light wouldn't come out -- I think we had to blacken the windows, I seem to recall. I seem to recall... or was it something my father made sure he had to throw away because he was afraid the FBI might come after him or something, he threw something away. Probably a picture of Hirohito. We had one or two in the house, I recall that. He probably pulled it down and hid it. And the other thing I remember was the windows, we had to make sure that there wouldn't be any lights coming out. But other than that, I don't seem to have any other memories of that incident.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright ©2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.