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MN: Now, going back to right after Pearl Harbor, what was school like on Monday?

BT: Right after Pearl Harbor, yeah, the principal called an assembly, and I think it was to listen to President Roosevelt's speech. That's when he declared war. And the principal says, "Okay," said, "let us all stand." And we sang some kind of song. Anyway, he says, "Everybody hold hands with your neighbors." Well, I'm sitting there, there's no one sitting on either side of me, so I felt a little, I don't know, out of place or whatever you call it. Yeah.

MN: Now, during this program, did the principal say anything about Japanese Americans?

BT: I don't really remember. I don't think so. It's just more... he might've said something 'cause there's a lot of Japanese Americans at the school.

MN: Your twelfth grade English teacher gave you a hard time after Pearl Harbor. Can you share with us what happened?

BT: Yes. She gave me an incomplete on a report card, and so I couldn't imagine why, so I went up to the teacher and I says, "How come you gave me an incomplete?" So she pulled out her ledger, notebook, and says, "Oh, it says you were supposed to turn in two book reports, but you only turned in one." I says, "Well, that's true, but you said if we made a book report on a biography it'd count as two. And I wrote a book report on Abraham Lincoln." So she checks her book again, says, "Oh yeah, you're right." Says, "Well," she says, "you're doing A work, but I don't like your attitude, so I'm gonna give you a B." So I just turned around, kind of smiling to myself, because I've never done A work in English. I've always gotten a B in English, so I know she was just trying to get on my nerves. She was a kind of odd teacher. I remember one time... we were in the flight path of the airport, and the Army Air Corps was using our airport to practice. They'd do landing and taking off, this and that. And one time when we were in this English class a bunch of planes start flying over, and there was two white kids that was sittin' on the opposite end of the room. They both jump up and said, and running toward the window and said, "The Japs are coming, the Japs are coming." The teacher didn't respond at all. She just kept doing what she was doing.

MN: How did you feel when you saw that?

BT: Pardon?

MN: How did that make you feel?

BT: Yeah, that kind of hurt, for a teacher not to say anything. These two were kind of rowdy kids. They were nice guys, but they were on the rowdy side. But they were out of line right there.

MN: Just out of curiosity, why did you do a book report on Abraham Lincoln?

BT: I only wanted to do one book report. [Laughs]

MN: No special reason why.

BT: No special reason.

MN: Okay. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, did you hear of anybody being picked up by the FBI?

BT: Yeah, one of my friends, his father had a restaurant, but he was picked up. He was, I don't know for what reason. And this kid that we ran around with, he said, "Man," he says, "here I am buying these stamps --" what did they call the stamps now? It's like a, like a war bond, but you buy stamps and you fill in a book, and then when you fill up the book you turn it in for a war bond. He says, "I've been buying all these here. Now," he says, "I'm not buying anymore, being treated this way."

MN: Now, at first the government didn't make the entire state of California a military exclusion zone for Japanese Americans, so did Fresno fall into the initial free zone, or the white zone?

BT: No, we were actually the border. See, at first the army said two hundred fifty miles in, in from the coastline, so then they picked up the 99 Highway as the border. So any town east of 99 Highway, they were in what they called the white zone. But like in Fresno, the 99 Highway ran right in the middle of it, so we weren't affected. We were not considered white zone. Even if you lived on the east side of 99, because it, Fresno, they took everybody.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.