<Begin Segment 7>

MN: Now let me get into the war years.

IH: All right.

MN: What were you doing on Sunday, December 7, 1941?

IH: That's a good question. I really don't recall. It was a Sunday, we might have been going to Sunday school. Again, the news of Pearl Harbor and the bombing of Pearl Harbor didn't have much of an impact on us, we were thirteen-year-old boys. Again, parents shielded us from the devastation, the impact of that. I know my uncle, my father wrote in his diary that my uncle Jim, he came by and he was very distraught. They knew what the consequences of that was. Because they had a business relationship, my father had... my uncle Jim ran the branch store, Valley Seed Company, in the Imperial Valley, so they were concerned about the business. Just existence, living their lives because of the war.

MN: Now, did anybody you know get picked up by the FBI?

IH: There was one young Kibei that worked for my father as a salesman, he wasn't there at the house, but the FBI did come looking for him. And I understand they found him later, but they questioned him for a few days and they released him.

MN: Now early on, your father had been the secretary of the Japanese Association in Imperial Valley.

IH: That's correct.

MN: Did he ever get questioned about that?

IH: No, not that I know of.

MN: Now the next day is a Monday. Did you go to go school?

IH: I believe I did.

MN: Do you recall what the atmosphere was like at school?

IH: I think it was normal as I recall. I don't recall any incidents, any remarks, nothing at all. Only when word got out that we're gonna be evacuated, then we got called into the principal's office, and the principal said, "I'm very sorry to see you leave," and he didn't think it was right. At that time -- I guess I'm digressing a little bit -- he gave us an American flag, a school flag.

MN: Do you still have this flag?

IH: No, I do... it was made out of nylon, and it just disintegrated through the years.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.