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TI: Let's go to the war. So December 8, 1941, in Japan that's when Pearl Harbor, people heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. How did you hear about it?

IH: Oh, that time, I was, I think, second grade, chuugakkou, that's middle school. And was going to the sports event from the school, and then we heard from the radio that war started. Oh, I was really scared. Not only myself, everybody got really scared.

TI: So scared.

IH: Yes.

TI: So was it quiet? Or what kind of...

IH: But cannot do anything, just we got to go to school and do it. But it's inside. Don't show on the outside, but really scared thinking what's going to happen. Maybe in a few months we're going to have an air raid or something like that.

TI: Because you were, what, about twelve years old when the war started? This is 1941, yeah, so you'd be twelve years old. This is, you said, like about eighth grade or so? What grade would you be in?

IH: Eighth grade.

TI: Eighth grade, okay. So you're scared, and so how did life start changing now that the war had started? What sort of things did you see? You said earlier there were some shortages, some rationing. Then what happened?

IH: First thing is Japanese military had so much power because of fighting in China, and they started to the United States. Then everything going to the military, so civilian doesn't have anything left. That ration comes and really strict. Not only they gain the power, they tried to educate in the military way. At the school, from the college, to the elementary school, so everything, fight, fight, fight.

TI: So that was a change. Before, it wasn't so much, and then now that war started, you started getting trained in school about more military.

IH: For the country. You're going to give the life to the country. So everything military. So when, instead of going to the regular college, they tried to pull into the military school.

TI: And how would they do that? They would just try to recruit?

IH: No, just kind of, they're going to educate to that. And then for the school, you have to be really good, too. Like me, on the seventh, eighth grade, I took the test for the military school early, but I failed. Then tenth grade, I took 'em for the army officer's school, naval and officer's school, and everything, failed. Especially in the navy officer's school, entry examination, every day, we're going to have a result. So in the morning, take a test, nighttime, already there, then have a list. So Japanese, and then science, I took the examination and I pass. And then the last test was English, and I failed. [Laughs]

TI: Oh, that's so funny. That's ironic. [Laughs] And here you were an American citizen.

IH: Yeah, so even now, when I go back to Japan, my friends say, "Oh, I didn't know you were a Nisei. I thought you were... you wasn't good on English."

TI: That's ironic. Which brings a point, I mean, because your sister, you and your brother were all born in Hawaii, were you ever treated differently because of your American citizenship?

IH: Not with my family. Because not too many people knew that we are American-born. Only after the war, I tried making, prepare for coming back to Hawaii, then everybody said, "Huh?"

TI: And so you had like a, what, a birth certificate? Or how did you prove that you were American later on?

IH: On the birth certificate.

TI: Now in terms of citizenship, did you have dual citizenship?

IH: Dual citizenship, right. That time I had. So when we were coming back and went to the general consul, they're going to check the American citizenship and then to Japan, they knew. Only thing they're going to check is history connected to the Japanese government and then the military. And if you go into the military, I couldn't come back. So my friends went to the army, that's the reason they couldn't come back. Way later, they came back, but they had a hard time.

TI: Yeah, so if you were American-born and then were in Japan, as long as you didn't serve in the military, you could come back as a citizen. But if you fought or you served in the Japanese military, then you lost your U.S. citizenship.

IH: Because when, student time, we get the order to help at the fire station because of the, prepare for the air raid. And even that, American consul asked question and then I have to get proof. I could work in the fire station, even we don't have a Japanese citizenship. So I have to go there and then get the certificate and come back. And after that, no problem. Because I was a student 'til 1940...

TI: '45, right?

IH: '44, yeah.

TI: Well, no, even '45, August, when the bomb was dropped you were a student.

IH: That time was, I was in college. Then three years' college, then should be '48 come back here. But Hawaii had a dock strike from August. So I couldn't come back until the following year, 1949, February. The first boat to be, catch and come back.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.