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TI: And so before we leave the World's Fair, one last question about... did politics ever come up in the sense that during this time period, Japan was at war with Manchuria...

CH: Manchuria and Shanghai, I mean, yeah.

TI: So did that ever come up? Were people critical of the Japanese because of that? And did that ever enter into any of the discussion?

CH: Never, no. It never happened to me. I didn't go into politics anyway, and I wasn't there to give my opinion on any of that stuff. If anybody did approach me, I wouldn't have answered anyway. But yes, I think the papers were getting, talking about war, and it didn't sound good. But that was...

TI: Yeah, 1940, 1941.

CH: So in 1939 and 1940, that second year, 1940 was probably a little bit more tense, but it wasn't enough to... like I say I didn't bring politics into my work there or anything.

TI: Did you ever get a sense from the Japanese that, especially that second part, in 1940, that there might be a war between the United States and Japan?

CH: You know, I never thought of that. You know, when you're younger, I guess you don't think about that kind of stuff. I mean, I didn't anyway. War wasn't... I mean, war was someplace far away, you know. And so I never, I don't think I've ever thought that until it got more closer to, what was it, 1941, I think.

TI: Right, during that time period, yeah.

CH: When I was home, yeah.

TI: I mean, from a Japanese perspective, they were very critical of the United States' stance. They felt that they were making it hard. And then when they cut off the oil to Japan, that was very difficult. So I was just curious, from the Japanese perspective, were they critical or were they frustrated or angry with the American --

CH: No, I don't think... that wasn't the purpose of the fair. The fair was for goodwill anyway, so like I say, personally, I've never talked politics, and I didn't feel any severe thing. Maybe the papers were full of it toward the end there, but I didn't pay much attention.

TI: So when the fair closed down in 1940, what did you do after the fair closed down?

CH: Let's see, what did I do after the fair closed? Let's see. I went, part of the time I went home, spent time at home, and then I went... gosh, I can't remember.

TI: But were you still living in San Francisco, or did you go back to...

CH: I just, you know, I think Aki and I, we lived in San Francisco for a while. I can't remember if I was working, and we went back.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2015 Densho. All Rights Reserved.