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TI: Okay, so I'm gonna now kind of go to December 7, 1941. And do you remember that day?

MO: Oh yes. That was Sunday, and the radio was blasting. My dad came and says, oh, he says, "Japan bombed Pearl Harbor." And that didn't mean anything to me, but he says, "You can't go to Sunday school today," and he says, "You better stay home." And then they were all glued to the radio, my oldest brother and George, my mother, my second brother, and I remember they were listening to it, but I know that my dad says, "You better not go to Sunday school today."

TI: And do you, did your brothers, like your oldest brother, they say anything to you in terms of, be careful, or anything like that? Do you remember anything like that?

MO: I don't really remember too much about that, except that they told me not to go out and play, said stay home.

TI: Now, at this point were your brothers in, what, high school? Or what, what were they doing?

MO: Let's see, my oldest brother, Tommy, was, started the UW already. I don't know if it was his first or second year. And then George was probably about a senior at Lincoln High School.

TI: So let's talk about the next day when you went to school. What was that like?

MO: I don't know. I don't think there was much ado about anything too much. I don't, I don't recall. Where was that? No, was that after the war or before the war? No, it was after the war. When I came back from camp I went back to Hamilton Junior High, I think, and everything was fine, but there was one blond boy going down the hallway and he says, "You're a dirty, yellow Jap," or something, and he shoved me against the wall. And that was the only incident I remember about, he was in, it was Hamilton, just starting junior high school.

TI: This is after the war, when you came back?

MO: When I came back.

TI: And how did that make you feel? Do you remember what that, how you felt then?

MO: Oh, I was terribly hurt, of course, but I didn't say anything, but I really should've spoken up or something. But I was quiet anyway, and I didn't say anything.

TI: Okay.

MO: I look back and think I really should've spoken up.

TI: So what about the business? I mean, did the business change after the war started?

MO: Well, of course, we didn't have our business anymore, so my, when my dad came back he got work at --

TI: But no, not, not after the war, but I'm talking right after bombing of Pearl Harbor. So those, the weeks right after Pearl Harbor, did the business change then?

MO: I don't really know. We had our same customers, as far as I can remember.

TI: Okay, so things seemed to be pretty normal after the war?

MO: Well, as a child I didn't notice anything. Maybe my folks did, but I don't think I remember too much.

TI: Now, did your father ever get questioned by, like the authorities or the FBI? Were you aware of anything like that?

MO: I think they came to the house a couple times, but I didn't have anything to do or hear about it.

TI: Okay, 'cause you mentioned earlier how he was kind of like an officer of the dye works, the treasurer and things like that.

MO: Oh, in the club?

TI: Yeah, so I was wonder if that caused the authorities to kind of look into him.

MO: They probably inquired quite a bit about that and didn't know if they were, I suppose at the time they said, I wondered if those clubs had anything undercover, you know? [Laughs] But there was nothing like that.

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