<Begin Segment 11>

TI: So let's move on to December 7, 1941. So you're out probably on the station house.

GN: We're at the station house.

TI: So how did you hear about the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

GN: We heard it over the shortwave radio. You know, you don't know if it's true or not. But about a day or so later, the sheriff or somebody else came out there, couple people from the sheriff's office. I don't know if they were FBI or not, but they came out there and searched the station house and took the cameras we had, and radio, and they confiscated my .22 rifle.

TI: Now, what would you use a .22 rifle out on the station house for?

GN: [Laughs] Keep the seagulls off the roof. Because we used to use that water to wash dishes. You didn't have to shoot the whole bay, all you had to do was shoot one here and there and they get the message.

TI: So the seagull hunting...

GN: Keep the seagull off the roof.

TI: So the sheriff and a couple other men came out to the station house, they confiscated your rifle, the radio, cameras, things like that?

GN: That's all we had.

TI: And what did they say? Did they say anything to you?

GN: No, they didn't say anything, they just took it. They didn't give us any reason. Then they told us, "You guys can't stay here. We can't watch you here."

TI: Now, why were they concerned about a bunch of guys in the middle of a bay?

GN: They were concerned that we might signal, send signals out. In fact, just beyond the dock here, they had soldiers stationed there.

TI: You mean during the, right after Pearl Harbor?

GN: Right after Pearl Harbor.

TI: So what were they concerned about? That there was going to be some kind of landing or something?

GN: Yeah. Yeah, they were afraid they'd get invaded or something. Then they didn't want us signaling, so they had soldiers stationed there. They didn't know what they were doing, but they were there. [Laughs]

TI: And so what, when you heard about it when you were on the station house, shortwave radio, did you guys talk about what was going on? Was there any... what were you guys talking about? What was your reaction when you found out about Japan bombing Pearl Harbor?

GN: We had no idea what's going to happen.

[Interruption]

GN: We really didn't have any reaction. We didn't know what's going to happen. The people had houses here, living here in the bunkhouse, they all stayed here, 'cause they were opening oysters. But they wouldn't let us stay out in the bay.

TI: So if they didn't let you stay in the bay, were you able still to harvest enough to keep operations going?

GN: They had to bring in hakujin workers.

TI: Oh, so they put the white workers out in the station house.

GN: I don't know what they did, because we all had to move out of here. They had guards on all the bridges, soldiers.

TI: And did you get any, sort of, negative reactions from the locals after December 7th?

GN: No, we really didn't. We had no reactions. It was only when we were, they were closing the camps and people, Japanese started coming down here and looking the place over that they got concerned and started having meetings.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.