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TI: Let's talk about December 7, 1941. Do you remember that day and what happened?

PT: Yes, I do, but I didn't take it seriously. So what?

TI: So describe that. How did you first hear about it?

PT: Well, the only thing I knew about that was England, United States and Japan were trying to arrive at an agreement for every big battleship. England can have one, United States can have one, and Japan can have one-half, something like that.

TI: There was a treaty of some type, I can't remember the exact numbers, but you're right. The U.S. and Britain had more ships by treaty -- and these are military warships -- than what Japan could have.

PT: Yes. And when I heard it, I was aware of that, I felt that this is what Japan was going to say. Sooner or later, they're going to do it, and they did it. But I found that also very interesting, that they did not, to the best of my knowledge, no civilians got killed. And it was primarily targeted at military naval people, and I don't think the casualty was that high. But they did do an enormous amount of damage to the ships.

TI: Going back, I just want to clarify, so it's almost like you almost anticipated this.

PT: No, I did not.

TI: But it didn't surprise you?

PT: I was surprised.

TI: You were.

PT: Totally surprised. But I knew that they were bickering about that for quite a while. But what surprised me was that all of us were sent to camp shortly after that. Initially, the people where I lived in Elk Grove, they were not going to take that. And then they made a decision much later that we were going to go, too. So people in Sacramento went already, they were gone, and then they decided. As a result, they took us to Manzanar.

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