<Begin Segment 5>

BN: What were you doing the day of Pearl Harbor? What do you remember of December 7th?

GK: It wasn't anything special because I used to live with my brother.

BN: In Kaimuki.

GK: Yeah. So I didn't realize that it was such a big thing when the war started. But I heard the Japanese ship were to the north of Oahu, and they flew over Kahuku and Waialua to attack Schofield Barracks and Kaneohe Marine Base. But what I heard about that situation was there were two planes outside of Schofield Barracks, and they were in an area not, right next to Haleiwa. And those two planes, I think, were the only ones not destroyed, so they went out to attack the Japanese planes.

BN: How did you actually hear about the attack?

GK: The attack? I don't know. I don't remember.

BN: That was a Sunday, Sunday morning.

GK: Yeah. But I believe my younger sister and brother were, came to Honolulu to watch a football game, I think, and were living with us in Kaimuki.

BN: That weekend?

GK: Yeah, that day.

BN: When was your father arrested?

GK: Oh, the very first day. That's because he was considered agent for the Japanese government. And the reason is, he used to take all the birth records and death records for the Japanese consulate. So he was one of the first ones to be taken, interned. And the thing that I heard that's really amazing was that my mother was not taken. So there's nobody to conduct (religious) services, so my mother used to conduct the services. Like they had many war casualties, and they had to have services for them. But in Waialua there was only one temple that was open, and that was the Sotoshu, I think. The minister there, I don't think he was taken. Was it Tottori?

BN: I thought almost all of them were taken. Who was actually home? Who actually was still in Waialua at the time?

GK: Oh, my sister Irene Yoshiko. She was at home, and, well, the other brother was in Maui, and the next sister was in Japan.

BN: What about the two youngest? Were they also still at home?

GK: Yeah. My sister Takako and my youngest brother Koro.

BN: Did you know where your father was?

GK: No. For the longest time we didn't know where he was. And when somehow at Camp Shelby I found out that he was in Crystal City, that's where I went to visit him.

BN: But between December 7th and when you were at Camp Shelby...

GK: '43, 1943, after basic training.

BN: So what happened with... did school just go on after December 7th, or was there, what happened in terms of your own life at that time?

GK: Oh. Like I said, there was, that group formed by the university students, triple-V. And they helped with the defense work. Well, I went to work for the (used) defense job at that time as a carpenter.

BN: But you're still going to school, though.

GK: Oh, yeah.

BN: You're still going to school also?

GK: No. School terminated because of the war. And I continued so many years later.

BN: The people that formed the VVV, a lot of them were ROTC.

GK: Yes.

BN: You knew a lot of those...

GK: Oh, yes. We were classmates in U.H. Like Ted Tsukiyama was very active in there. And Sparky Matsunaga, he was a lieutenant I think.

BN: So school had kind of, was postponed I guess and you're doing carpentry work. How long did that go on?

GK: What?

BN: How long did that go on? Did school start up again?

GK: I think the school started out, but I didn't want to go back because I was working (at the rate of) fifty cents an hour, four bucks a day.

BN: You mentioned that you had the one sister who was in Japan at that time. Was your family able to communicate with her?

GK: No.

BN: So you didn't know what was going on.

GK: Yeah. That's why my father was very worried, and he wanted to go back.

BN: Do you know where in Japan she was?

GK: Kyoto I guess.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.