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TI: So I'm going to move now to December 7, 1941. So you're, do you remember that day?

SY: Yes.

TI: And so describe that day. What happened on December 7th?

SY: I think it was a Monday, was it?

TI: Sunday.

SY: Sunday? Oh, and when we went to school on Monday, the principal told us to gather, gather at the gym or something, and then he'd make us, what happened, you know, he told us what happened. And, gee, what else did he say? That's all I could remember. I think he said something else, but I just don't remember.

TI: Do you remember how you were feeling when the principal was describing what happened, how you felt when that happened?

SY: Yeah, I felt kind of sad and felt like everybody was looking at me. And it was kind of... I felt like running out of the room, but couldn't do that.

TI: Did any of your schoolmates ever say anything to you? Either schoolmates or a teacher or anyone say anything to you?

SY: No, no. There was no one who said anything.

TI: Did you sense that they that people acted maybe differently around you after that?

SY: Not particularly.

TI: How about your brothers or your father or mother? Any stories from them in terms of being treated any differently because of December 7th?

SY: No.

TI: So did, it sounds like, so not much changed. I mean, this happened, you felt...

SY: I know. If there was any change, it must have been very slight.

TI: When things like the government made a curfew and things like that...

SY: Yes, yes.

TI: ...then things started changing in terms of what you could and could not...

SY: We couldn't... yes.

TI: And so, like, so what would happen? How did your lives change when, say, for instance, the curfew started?

SY: Well, if they say you can't go, you want to go. But after eight o'clock was it, or after nine, you couldn't be outside.

TI: Yeah, so there was, that you had to be home by a certain time, and then you couldn't travel a certain distance.

SY: No, About, yes, about... what was it? Five or six miles or something like that?

TI: So once that happened, then you wouldn't be able to go to Salinas and things like that?

SY: No, we never went anyplace.

TI: Well, eventually, people got the notice that they had to leave. So what happened with your family? What did you guys do?

SY: Well, I guess... I don't know what my older brothers and... well, my oldest brother was drafted to the army by then. And I don't know what my father told the older children, but people started coming to our house wanting to buy the refrigerator and cars and stuff like that. So I didn't know what was going on.

TI: Now, were these people from Gilroy who were coming?

SY: I don't know.

TI: You didn't know who they were.

SY: They were Caucasians.

TI: And so did your family pretty much sell all these, all these things?

SY: Yes.

TI: So you mentioned your older brother George was drafted. So he was drafted after December 7th, or was it before December 7th?

SY: Before, before.

TI: So was he in the army when December 7th happened or...

SY: Yes.

TI: And do you know where he was, where he was at when December 7th happened?

SY: He was in Fort Ord. I don't know where he was first, but eventually he came to Fort Ord, and then I think we went to see him there once.

TI: And so during the, when the war started, what happened to him? So he was at Fort Ord, and then what happened to George?

SY: I don't know after that.

TI: But he stayed in the army?

SY: Yes, uh-huh.

TI: And was he always stationed in the United States or did he serve overseas?

SY: In the United States.

TI: Okay, so he never served overseas.

SY: No, no.

TI: Okay. So as, after you get your, the notice, the orders that you're going to be leaving, so your family sells all these things. Do you recall your father or mother talking about the prices they got for things like the refrigerator?

SY: Yeah. The refrigerator, I think I heard them say about five dollars, you know. I don't know how many cubic feet it was, but I think my father paid about eighty dollars or so, eighty or ninety dollars for it. We had it one year, he sold it for five dollars.

TI: So in other words, someone got a really big bargain, because they had to leave, they knew they had to leave, so they...

SY: Yeah, well, I guess he had no choice but to sell it at that price.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.