<Begin Segment 9>

TI: Okay. So now, going back, as you're entering the military, I'm curious, do they ask, do they ask you questions like judo? Do they know that you were good at judo when you entered the army?

YU: They, I think you put down what you have done or something like that. I think we did put down judo.

TI: And how did the army react to that? Did they view it as something that was interesting?

YU: They didn't think anything by it. They just...

TI: But they knew what it was?

YU: Yeah, they knew.

TI: Okay. So tell me, you're in the army now, what's this like? What happens next?

YU: Well, I'm at Fort MacArthur, and we were, about middle of the night we hear a bunch of antiaircraft guns going off, and everything just, yeah, that something, that a plane's flying over California.

TI: This is in Los Angeles?

YU: This is Los Angeles, Fort MacArthur, San Pedro is Fort MacArthur.

TI: Right.

YU: And next morning it's a big headline, "Jap planes fly over Los Angeles." And then the naval intelligence come out and said, "No, there was no planes." So there was controversial things constantly about the Japanese.. Somewhere along the line they figured all the... also, Santa Barbara had a submarine. That, how much truth there is to it, I don't know. But they said a small submarine landed in Santa Barbara.

TI: But yeah, but going back to the antiaircraft sort of firings, so the controversy, I think some people thought, well, there were really were planes, but then now the government's trying to cover it up to not have a panic?

YU: Yeah, the government said there's no planes, and the FBI said no planes. The naval intelligence said no planes.

TI: So what happened? Why were they firing all these guns?

YU: Well, that's the thing that everybody was mystified, 'cause they said no Japanese, no Japanese planes.

TI: So you think someone may have just gotten sort of panicked a little bit?

YU: Well, I think that it was the time point. Any little thing was, people thought there were saboteurs all over the place.

TI: And you were there. I mean, did you see anything about... what did you think?

YU: No, the only thing is we, they, we had to be sure that the lights were off and that the blinds were pulled. The sergeant would come through and he said, "Close the blinds." And that was about it.

TI: So tell me, so you were there, these guns had just gone off and you were there, what was the atmosphere at Fort MacArthur?

YU: Well, it was scary, because, is this the truth or just some maneuvering of soldiers or planes or something? But nobody really knew what was going on.

TI: And at your level, from what you knew, what did you think about the possibility of a Japanese invasion in Los Angeles?

YU: Well, we were, we weren't too sure that a Japanese... but then, of course, they had, the Japanese had bombed Hawaii, and nobody thought the Japanese could bomb Hawaii. And now they thought maybe the carriers are in the, somewhere close by in the Pacific.

TI: And that if it were, L.A. would be a likely target.

YU: Right.

TI: Okay. So there was fear. I mean, people were concerned.

YU: That's right.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.