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TI: So thinking about your father fighting in the Pacific, back then, growing up, what were the attitudes towards Japanese? I mean, how would you describe how you or your family felt about the Japanese?

MF: I just... there was a lot of propaganda. I just, I remember more, on the East Coast it was more the Germans were the thing and stuff. And I can remember I had a friend, very good friend who was of German descent and I used to ask, I remember I used to ask him, I found out later I used to ask 'em, I says, "Are you a Nazi?" And to me, Nazi was German. And he'd get all upset about it, he said, "No, no." I said, "I thought you were Nazi." I realized later that they weren't the same, and so there was a lot of, mostly towards Europe and stuff. And my uncles who were in the service, except for one, fought in the Atlantic, European war. And the attitudes towards the Japanese, they had the character of basically the "yellow man" and stuff like that, all the wartime propaganda, they were always showing these short little people and things like that. But as a kid...

TI: Now did you have any exposure to anyone, either Japanese or other Asian races?

MF: I don't remember any, I don't remember any.

TI: Because back then they were pretty much, mostly on the West Coast, although New York City might have, they had some.

MF: Yeah, I would think so. But I just, where I lived there was none. The neighborhood I was in was mostly Irish and Italian.

TI: So at this point, you just didn't know much about the Japanese other than what you would see in the media.

MF: Yeah. And, of course, after 1945, that kind of went away, all the property and stuff like that. So just, it got to be the point where I don't think I ever thought about 'em after that.

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