Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Cherry Kinoshita Interview
Narrator: Cherry Kinoshita
Interviewers: Becky Fukuda (primary), Tracy Lai (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: September 26, 1997
Densho ID: denshovh-kcherry-01-0005

<Begin Segment 5>

BF: So what was the time period like between hearing about Pearl Harbor and the orders to evacuate?

CK: Oh, okay. A day or two after Pearl Harbor, then we got the visit from two men, dressed in suits and the hats in those days, and I was... my older brother, my oldest brother was in the service, so my next older brother took over in terms of interpreting and all that. And it turned out the FBI had received a report that my father might be a spy because we had a shortwave radio. That radio happened to be an eight-dollar -- I remember the figure, eight dollars -- because we saved for it for Christmas, the Christmas before. It was just a little old radio that couldn't get the station very far. But apparently -- and we found out later it was a neighbor who had said that. And so, the FBI men questioned, oh, it must have been an hour or so, and found that there was nothing. He was nothing but a humble, little dry cleaning operator and so they left. Then following them, we felt that since, sort of, that we needed to be very unnoticeable. In other words, all socials stopped. I remember there was going to be a dance at the Spanish Castle and everybody... it was called off. Everything stopped. But December, January... the weeks after Pearl Harbor, there wasn't a lot of difference. There was this subdued feeling, but it was only later, several weeks or even a month later that the newspapers started to come out with these stories of potentially sabotage so that then the columnists, Walter Winchell and all that... and that began to build. Then the labor unions -- Dave Beck was quite strong in this area -- and so then that sentiment among the public began to build. Because I think the records will show right after Pearl Harbor there wasn't a lot of outcry. It was only later on and it was stirred up by these elements. Economic forces. I don't think enough emphasis had been (placed) on the economic factor. People looked at the farmlands and looked at the holdings of Japanese and wanted them out. I mean, this was a good chance to get them out of the area and so the cry then began, to move all of us.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.