<Begin Segment 4>

SY: So then I guess you said you remember a little bit before Pearl Harbor so you remember going to school?

HK: Pearl Harbor was on Sunday morning, and we heard the news over the radio and I just knew it was bad news for us.

SY: And your whole family was there at the time?

HK: Yes, pretty much, yes.

SY: And do you remember any kind of reaction from your parents?

HK: Not so much from my parents but my... the sister above me, Sachi, she was a student leader and she was student body president of her middle school or junior high school as they called it in those days, and she was concerned about how she would handle this, going back to school. But fortunately there were no untoward incidents so it went okay for her... she was concerned for a while as we all were.

SY: Exactly. Now how about you? Did you have any kind of --

HK: I was a little bit edgy, a little bit nervous about it all but I'm happy to say that my classmates were pretty good about the whole thing so I didn't have any unfortunate incidents.

SY: Was there any discussion about it with your classmates?

HK: You know, I don't actually don't recall an actual discussion about what took place.

SY: Just that there was probably some discomfort.

HK: Yes, for sure.

SY: And your oldest brother was helping your dad at that time?

HK: Yes, that's correct.

SY: So he was probably... your older siblings probably had, there was more impact on them right?

HK: I believe so. At the time of Pearl Harbor, one of my older sisters was a student at UC Berkeley, she was a sophomore there in fact, it was spring of 1942 and you know, with that Warren Furutani the legislation to allow the Nisei to receive honorary degrees. Well, that sister Chieko did receive an honorary degree at Berkeley a couple years ago, yeah, a couple years ago, and we all went to the service. And it was a very emotional thing just to kind of be there and honor her and her son... one of her sons received an honorary degree in her name so that was very special.

SY: She had already passed away.

HK: Yes, that's correct.

SY: That's too bad. So she was the only one who was actually in college at the time?

HK: Yes, one of my older sisters had gone to San Jose State although she didn't finish there as I recall, and one of my other sisters went to the business college in Berkeley.

SY: I see. And then the other sister was still in middle school and was student body president?

HK: Yes.

SY: So now the whole transition from getting prepared to go to camp, was that something you remember, do you recall the details?

HK: Yes, I remember having a... I really had kind of pestered my parents to buy me a Schwinn bike, you know the Schwinn bikes? And they finally relented to my pleadings and they bought me a Schwinn bike, new Schwinn bike. It was very nice, I would clean it and wipe it and keep it immaculate, and I remember this very vividly, it had a little horn on the side and you pressed it and it would make a noise, like it's a horn. So I remember that was a very special thing too. That was my precious possession, and unfortunately the Pearl Harbor happened and we had to sell the bike. I was really brokenhearted by that, 'cause I was so fond of my bike that I rode to most places. It was a really crushing blow.

SY: It was something that you --

HK: Yeah, I cherished my bike and so it was gone.

SY: So do you remember them selling off other things?

HK: Yes, I don't know exactly how much they sold, but I know that people were coming around and buying stuff and negotiating and it was of course very cheaply ,so they were taking big losses on their household items and so on.

SY: And so being truck farmers, they obviously owned a truck?

HK: Some equipment, right.

SY: And farming equipment?

HK: Yes, that all had to be sold.

SY: Would you say that your father was fairly successful? I mean, was he taking... did he have a lot of acreage on his farm?

HK: No, I would not say he had a lot of acreage. I would say he leased the land and I would say he was just... I wouldn't say he was that successful. It was after the war that he experienced more success in the nursery business.

SY: I see. So at the time it was a matter of getting rid of all their equipment?

HK: Oh yeah, I think all of the Japanese families were under semi-panic because we had to obey the evacuation orders and we had to do this in a relatively short period of time. So it was very difficult, very anxious time for all of us for that matter.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.