<Begin Segment 4>

MA: Okay, 'cause then Pearl Harbor happened 1941. And can you tell me your memories of that day, of the day that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor?

CQ: You know, I have no memories of that day at all. I have no memories of that day, I don't know what I was doing or where I was. I probably was reading, 'cause I was an avid reader ever since I was really little. And other people say, oh, gosh, they were working and they heard the radio. And I've heard a lot of accounts. But I don't remember anything. I would always go to the nursery right next door, and I would water plants or I would do things with my dad, pull little weeds, you know. I remember things like that. Not anything major. And I always remember when we came home from school, I would always get a piece of the rice that was cooked the night before, and it always was sort of kogeta, it's sort of brown on the bottom. I'd just get a little piece of that with the sakushi and then I'd put mayonnaise and shoyu on it, and then I'd go to the nursery and I'd start talking to my dad. And that was sort of what I remember I did when my dad had the nursery there. And I know people came and went, and one time I found a folded up twenty dollar bill. And so I went running to my dad and I said, "Dad, this was in the driveway." You know, the driveway also was where the cars would park to go to the nursery. And he said, well, he'll hang on to it, and if anybody has lost it, he'll give it back. But if no one claims it... he'll ask the people who come, you know, if they lost any money, then he said, "It will be yours." And I just thought, oh my god, this is a fortune. Because they had one-penny candies in those days, and twenty dollars was like a million dollars to me. And, well, I don't remember what happened, but I remember that incident. [Laughs] I don't remember if he found the person, I don't remember getting the money or anything, but I remember that moment that my dad explained that to me. And probably somebody claimed it, because I don't remember getting it. But that was just the most exciting thing I've ever heard in my life. And so I remember things like that. But I had no problems in school.

MA: So after Pearl Harbor, you don't remember any incidences, people maybe singling you out?

CQ: No. As far as I was concerned, I felt I was just like my girlfriend, who was a blue-eyed blonde. I never thought of myself as anything other. And for some reason, I don't remember any of my brothers or sisters talking about it. But you know, I never listened to them unless they were talking directly to me and telling me what to do and what not to do and how to do something. And I guess I got that way when I was with my auntie, because she was very, very strict. And anything my cousin, who was five years older than me, and I would do that would upset her, we'd be punished immediately. And so I remember one time when we were just rolling marbles in the kitchen along the grooves of the wood, and she got so angry at us that she gave us yaitos on our knuckles on both hands so that we'd remember never to do that again. And that's where you put the little punk on (your skin) and then you get your incense and you light and then you light it here, so it burns intensely and it leaves a scar. That was our punishment.

And then when I'd kick under the table... I remember these two incidents, and I couldn't have been more than two or three, 'cause I wasn't there any longer than that, and I went to her before I was walking. And I'd kick under the table and she'd say, "Don't do that." And my uncle and her and Robbie and I would be sitting there. And then I'd kick again, and she'd get so mad she'd just lift me up and take me to the shed and lock me in the shed outside. And she said, "You never listen to me," in Japanese. So I tried only to listen to things that pertained to me, I guess. And it was sort of the same when I was living with my brother-in-law and my sister. They had their lives, and I was with my sister, but she took care of (her kid), too. And then she was having a baby of her own, and so I played with the kid next door a lot, had a lot of flea bites, 'cause we lived in... where is that place that has all those clams along the coast? Anyway, it's in the middle of California. And they had a lot of sand fleas.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.