Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Masamizu Kitajima Interview
Narrator: Masamizu Kitajima
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Date: June 12, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-kmasamizu-01-0012

<Begin Segment 12>

TI: So let's move to that, so... December 7, 1941, did you know what was happening in Pearl Harbor?

MK: I had no idea. All we heard was the radio. The Japanese were bombing Hawaii and this and that. I didn't, we didn't know anything. All we, all we... all I remember was that the military was running along the road and I said, "How come all these military vehicles are running and we can't, we can't go out to the beach any longer?" and all this. It was Sunday morning, and Sunday morning's supposed to be after church we were gonna go fishing. And we couldn't go.

TI: Because the street in front of the, it was just like, military's going back and forth.

MK: Military back, back and forth. We didn't have that many, but then the National Guard was all activated, and they're all on the street, and most of the people that was there are all National Guards.

TI: Now when you heard that, that the United States was at war with Japan, did that surprise you? You had just been in Japan just weeks before.

MK: No, didn't really surprise me, and, I guess... I really didn't know what it really meant, I don't think. All that, all I said is, "Oh, I wish I could see those airplanes fighting." That's about all I could see, you know. Think about. It never dawned on me that we were really at war, what the war meant or anything to that effect, no.

TI: On December 7th, that Sunday, did your father say anything to you?

MK: No. He says, he didn't say anything to me that I remember. Just that... I know he mentioned something about, "We're gonna have a lot of trouble because the war has finally come about, and this is the reason why we couldn't come home from Japan."

TI: Do you recall anything happening on December 7th with your father? Did he, like, meet with anyone, or was he out and about?

MK: Yes, he, he disappeared. I don't know where he went, but that afternoon, he, he left the church. He gathered some stuff and just left. He didn't come home 'til late afternoon, late in the evening. I didn't know what it was. I later found out what it was.

TI: So where was he?

MK: He had taken the, all the -- he was, he had been gathering money, funds to create the church. All this money that he had, he had to get rid of it. Took it to one of the church, the treasurer's house, and they in turn went someplace else. Hid it. They, I guess he felt that there was some implication of hiding money and stuff like this, so he just got rid of the money. He said, I guess he suspected he may be one of those that's gonna get targeted for questioning and all this.

TI: And this was the money, because originally he was sent there to build a new church.

MK: To build a church.

TI: So for a couple years he had been raising money...

MK: Raising money.

TI: Collecting it, and so...

MK: He had to hide it or he'd lose it.

TI: So he brought it to someone, another church member, you thought the treasurer, and then they took it and they hid it, and so that's where the money was. Okay, because the next day, tell me what happened the next day.

MK: I don't know. I went to school. About noon I got called. I was... third grade. I was called home. Somebody, somebody came up to the school and said I had to go home, so I went home, and when I went home I saw Mom crying and I said, "What's happened?" She says, "Dad got taken. The FBI came and picked him up." "What's gonna happen?" She don't know yet. "Where they gonna take him?" They don't know yet. Nothing, no, just that they came in a black car, grabbed Dad tight and put him in the car and they left, without any word. And it was almost a week before we found out that he was right in the county jail.

TI: Was that in Kapaa, just nearby?

MK: Yeah, right... well, it's only about three miles from our house. There was a county jail there, and they were confined in the county jail.

TI: That's Wailua?

MK: Wailua. That's across the current golf course.

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