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MN: So we were talking about Pearl Harbor day. What were you, what did you usually do on Sundays, and what did, what were you doing that particular Sunday?

RW: Well, we either played some kind of sports, we played football out in the park. We'd just kind of hang around, but we always would spend our time at the movie, Tony Rodriguez theater in Redlands. That was kind of our home, the three of us, and sometimes Bat's cousin would come with us, but we'd go to the theater, same theater, and we'd sit in the front row. And in those days it was serials like The Drums of Fu Manchu, Buck Rogers, Lone Ranger, etc., and all those serials, so you had to come back to see how they got of the situation. So sometimes we'd go there and spend the whole day and evening. My mother used to come and they would let her into the theater just to come in and bring us something to eat, and then she'd come down to the front row, give us some sandwiches or whatever, and then she'd go home. She would do that and come all the way to the theater and bring that. That's what we usually did on the weekend. On that Sunday, Pearl Harbor, we were there, and while we were watching the movie, the movie went off, the lights came on, and a soldier came out on the stage and said, "All service, military service personnel here must report back to your base immediately." We didn't think nothing of it, just, probably just, "Hey, come back to the base, you guys don't belong here." Then when we came out and were going home, it was getting dark, so as we walked by the city hall, which was just half a block away, there were some soldiers standing out in front of city hall, helmet and rifle and everything. We didn't think nothing of that either. When we got home my mother was out there waiting for us on the sidewalk and I guess she was there all that time waiting for us. And then she told Bat to go home, "Go home," and then she told me, "Hurry up, get in the house. Get in the house." So I said, "What's the matter? What's the matter?" She said, "Don't say nothing. Just come in and get in the house." So then we went in the house -- it was now dark outside. There's a knock on the door so I went to the door, and it was the Chief of Police, the friend of ours. And he just said, told my mother, "Keep your children indoors at night. We don't know what's gonna happen or what to expect, but we'll have a patrol car here in the area all the time." So there was no problem. Nothing ever happened.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.