<Begin Segment 12>

TI: Okay, so you had just started the University of Washington.

MS: In the fall, and then December 9th, I remember the war broke out.

TI: Yeah, so December 7th. So what --

MS: Oh, the 7th. Oh, I was with my friends at this little cafe, and we heard the announcement about the war, and it was shocking. And it didn't, it didn't register that much. It didn't, you didn't know much like you do now if you're a young person, you know a lot of what the world is like. But it didn't leave an impression, but you knew it's going to be different. And so when we went back, and then you still continued to go to school, but it was when we had to, when the curfew came in and you had to be in by six o'clock. And the semester ended, we needed to go home. And that was when the changes really began, too, you began to feel the changes. And I laugh because I've heard some people say, "We didn't know we had so many kids." We had to be in by six o'clock.

TI: Oh, I see, okay. When you say, so when the semester ended, or when the quarter ended...

MS: Quarter ended, I went home.

TI: You went home. Did you go with anyone else, or just by yourself?

MS: No, we all had to leave. I think we all left.

TI: So who's "we"?

MS: Other Japanese students

.

TI: From the Wapato area?

MS: Yeah. I think we all, because we were, beginning said you need to be in the curfew, the restrictions began, too. I don't think the family wanted us to be away from home, because for the valley people that was going to Seattle. And if there's a war going on, they would like the kids to come home anyway.

TI: So, yeah, so they wanted you there, but I'm guessing you had a choice? You could have stayed with your sister and brother-in-law or your...

MS: No, I really wanted to go home.

TI: Okay. And why was that? Because it was a, sort of, just more comforting to be there?

MS: Yes, yes.

TI: And when you returned home, what was the...

MS: But we still had to farm.

TI: Did you talk to your parents about what happened?

MS: I don't know. I don't remember that at all. I think you kind of knew there was a war going on, and you didn't... when I think back about how we were, and the kids nowadays that are so full of information would know an awful lot. But we had, I didn't even know where Hawaii was, you know, it was an island out there. It was not a part of the state at that time. And to have it happen, and you didn't know what the effect will be, you felt safer because they're beginning to say, "Oh, the Japanese are gonna bomb the coast and so forth," and you felt safer, so you went home. But you really didn't have any idea what the effect would be. I think that we were so naive, not only just us, but I think our parents and the citizens didn't understand what it meant as far as being at war. And so I think there was a lot of misconception of what the world would be.

TI: When you returned to Wapato, did you sense a difference in Wapato when you returned?

MS: Not really. Because there were crops to be put in at that time, and we felt safer, because we were off the coast and that, but we didn't know what the effect would be.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.