<Begin Segment 10>

MN: Well, I wanted to get into Pearl Harbor actually. How old were you when Pearl Harbor was attacked?

KI: I was... let's see, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen... nine days short of being twelve, yeah 'cause it was December 7th and my birthday is on the sixteenth.

MN: Now how did you hear about this?

KI: At church.

MN: And how was the atmosphere different in church that day?

KI: It just seemed like it was quieter, it was quieter and I can't remember too much really except that it was quieter and there was... people seemed to be talking in quieter tones. And it must have sort of reflected on us because I guess we weren't running around as much as something. Or maybe they heard, maybe the kids, people heard about it, 'cause I heard about it when I went to pick up my girlfriend to go to church and she's the one that told me.

MN: And when she told you at that point did you think it was serious?

KI: No. All I know is that all I remember thinking is hey, mom and dad's parents are over there. And of course my father didn't know about it until I told him after I told him after I came home from church.

MN: What was his reaction?

KI: He was angry, he was stupefied. I mean, he says oh, I remember he just kept saying, "Japan wouldn't do such a baka thing." Then he stomped into the house and I don't know what happened after that. But then my sister and I went to the movies after that. [Laughs] So it just... we were so far removed from it and I remember knowing about Japan because we used to collect gum wrappers and this was when Japan was fighting China so we had to support Japan and send them all this wadded aluminum foil so they could do their airplanes or something. So I knew that there was kind of thing going on that way. And then culturally because of things that we did as Japanese, but I wasn't scared to go to the movie, we just walked up there. But then coming home was another... felt a little more intimidated. I don't know if that's the right word but knowing that what was on the screen and then knowing that... 'cause I don't think on the screen it didn't say anything about Japan bombing Pearl Harbor, it just said for the servicemen to report back to their stations. But I knew that Pearl Harbor had occurred, so on the way home I think we just came straight home whereas we usually would've dawdled and maybe walk around a little bit and stuff like that, pretty straight walk.

MN: And you didn't get harassed on that walk home?

KI: No, going inside the theater or coming out, nothing.

MN: Did you go to school the next day?

KI: Yeah, kind of felt funny, I felt kind of funny, you know.

MN: Now you had shared that you walked to school with a hakujin friend but this day you didn't.

KI: For some reason I didn't pick her up and maybe that's because I was scared, yeah.

MN: Now at school, how were the students and the teachers? Did they treat you any differently?

KI: No, to me, I don't remember anything bad or anything different, anything hurtful or anything like that at all. We just... to me life went on same as before.

MN: But you had this incident also where you were normally invited to birthday parties but what happened?

KI: Yeah, well, I didn't hear about the party until the next day and I remember thinking, well, gee, I never heard about the party. And I guess the kids were talking about it during recess or something you know. And I remember thinking I think just quickly that oh, maybe it's because I'm... because of the war, because Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. But I don't know, that was the only experience that I felt and nobody came out and said anything that, why I wasn't invited or "why weren't you there," or anything like that. But that's, I guess it was kind of, I think real -- like I said -- real just fleetingly that I was hurt, that moment that I heard that I wasn't going, that I hadn't gone to that party. But I think I dismissed it. I didn't take it home with me or it didn't fester in me or anything like that. So I don't know why I didn't react more but I didn't at least outwardly. And either I suppressed it or all these big psychological terms that they use nowadays, I just let it go. But I remember that girl, her name was Barbara, blue eyes, blond curly hair, tall, yeah, one of my classmates. Funny now that we're mentioning birthday parties, I don't remember ever inviting... having birthday parties at my house. Maybe we couldn't afford it or something. I think maybe we had family birthdays but I don't remember having kids' birthdays.

MN: Well, I know culturally having birthday party is not a Japanese --

KI: No, it isn't. So I think probably maybe just as a family we did it or maybe just invited the family across the street or something like that.

MN: I know growing up -- my mother's from Japan -- we didn't have birthday parties.

KI: That's what a lot of people say, yeah.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.