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MN: Okay, in 1941 you were attending Foshay Junior High School. Now, what was the ethnic makeup of Foshay at the time?

TS: Mostly white.

MN: And you were twelve years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked on Sunday, December 7th. What do you remember of that day?

TS: Some hakujin guy in my class, classmate said, "You guys attacked Pearl Harbor." I says, "What, 'you guys'?" I said, "Me?" He said, "Your kind." I'll never forget that guy. Accused me of bombing Pearl Harbor.

MN: Now, also some of the, is it FBI, or police officers came to your house.

TS: They did.

MN: What did they do?

TS: They snipped the shortwave, wires off of our Philco shortwave. We had a big console radio, and he, I remember the guy cutting down wires. I said, "What are you cutting 'em for?" He says, "So you don't communicate with Japan." I said, "We're not communicating with Japan. In Japan, they don't know us. We're nothing in Japan." But he brushed me off and he says, "We got to do it."

MN: Now, when you went to school did your teachers treat you differently?

TS: You mean after?

MN: After Pearl Harbor.

TS: No.

MN: So other than that one classmate that gave you a hard time, did you --

TS: He didn't give me a hard time, he just said, "You guys bombed Pearl Harbor." "Oh, we bombed Pearl Harbor?" He said, "Yeah, your kind." Nobody said much of anything, teachers or anything.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.