<Begin Segment 13>

TI: So going back to that Sunday, December 7, 1941, you're typing your paper about the possibility of Japan attacking Borneo for the oil, things like that. So when you heard the news, what was your reaction?

CS: I pulled out the paper and ripped it up. [Laughs] I wished I hadn't.

TI: Well, what was going through your mind? Why did you pull it out of the typewriter and rip it up?

CS: Well, as I say, if anybody read it, I'm (giving Japan's) point of view, everything else. So right away, I was going to be under suspicion.

TI: Oh, so right away, you knew that if you had this pro-Japanese position, that you would be targeted or you would get in trouble.

CS: Yeah. I got in trouble anyway. [Laughs]

TI: And what did -- your classmates. I mean, the people who were close to you, they kind of knew your viewpoint. You probably talked to them about these things. I mean, what did they say?

CS: I don't recall. I probably did, but I was too absorbed in my... that's why people asked me if I knew the Niseis at Berkeley, and I said I was just so absorbed in my studies that I didn't... they had a Japanese club, but I never mingled. I lived in a co-op which was away from the campus, so it was all with hakujin.

TI: So this is really interesting, because you have a very, what's the right word, sophisticated view of what was going on, more than most Niseis. Even those in college weren't really focused on the U.S.-Japan relations. So when you think about what you knew and what was going on, in hindsight, were there other things the community could have done differently than what happened? I mean, I'm trying to think what this question is. I'm wondering, did you have strong opinions at this point about what should happen next, I guess?

CS: Yeah. Well, the media was all one-sided, like I said. They never presented the Japan side. That's what got me kind of fired up, I said, "Hey," even this latest Japanese-bashing, it's always one-sided. So I think my friends, the American-born Niseis, they would read the paper and I'm sure they believed that.

TI: And so if you could change one thing, it sounds like getting the media to have a more balanced approach to what was going on, more knowledgeable approach, was that happening anywhere? Did you see anything that...

CS: Not that I was exposed to, no. Everything was all Japan-bashing.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.