<Begin Segment 11>

TI: Okay, so let's talk about, so December 7, 1941, how did you hear about the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

FS: You know, that particular Sunday morning, if I remember right, my dad harvested squash down the far end of our farm, and came in that afternoon, and that's the first I heard of it. I was just kind of stunned, but that's the first I knew about it. Pretty devastating time.

TI: And what about your father? Because you were with him, what was his reaction?

FS: You know, I don't know. Typical Issei, kind of a situation, they really didn't talk too much about stuff like that. They never talked about stuff that would let you know that they were worried about anything or deeply concerned about anything. So me being the youngest of six, he never did say much of anything to me. He may have to my sisters and my brother John.

TI: On that day, any recollections of anything that was unusual, other than hearing about the bombing of Pearl Harbor when you came back that afternoon? Anything else, like any family discussions or anything else like that?

FS: I don't remember a thing, but like I say, if my mom and dad had any discussions, it probably was with my older siblings. But I don't know, I wasn't in on any of that.

TI: How about the next day? The next day is school, it's Monday, December 8th. Anything interesting happen that day?

FS: I don't recollect any negative or anything different. I remember going to school the next day, and I didn't experience any discriminatory comments or anything like that. My friends were just like any other day.

TI: And how about teachers or the administration? Was there any mention of the bombing or anything like that?

FS: I don't remember that there was. I don't remember anything unusual from that time.

TI: And your school, what percentage of your class was Japanese?

FS: Very little. In fact, in my class, I think Joe Mochizuki and Mits Katayama, and there was one gal out of maybe fifteen or twenty of us.

TI: So not large, but significant. I mean, it was like you were, sounds like, about four or five out of twenty, so that's maybe twenty percent, twenty, twenty-five percent?

FS: At the most.

TI: So in the days and weeks following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, what happened? What was going on at the farm? Was there any thought that something might happen? At some point, Bainbridge Island was removed, what was happening?

FS: You know, I just don't have much recollection about too much going on. The only thing that I remember was my mom and dad were getting concerned because they were aware that some of the Isseis were being taken away. And my mother was concerned that my dad might be taken away. But other than that, the only thing I remember was anything that was, Japanese cultural items and things like that, my mom and dad just got rid of it all, which is a shame. But that's the only thing that I remember of that time.

TI: And did you see them, so when they got rid of it, was that like, I think you mentioned earlier, burning?

FS: Burning, yeah. You know, like the kendo gear that I had, my dad just burned it up.

TI: And in addition to that, did he continue just doing the regular farm stuff? Would he still take these trips to the Tacoma Farmers Market? Well, it's wintertime though, so probably not as much, it's December, so probably not as active at that point.

FS: Yeah. See, in that timeframe, my dad had two rhubarb pits. They would bring in rhubarb roots from the field, and force grow them, and they would harvest those, and they used to go to the Puget Sound Vegetable for shipment. And that part continued, but that time of the year, not much other crops going on. But the interesting thing is, you know, normally, folks would be preparing to plant vegetables later in the spring, and my mom and dad would plant seeds and grow plants. And then in the greenhouse and then transporting those out into the field as the weather got warmer. That just continued, they just went right on.

TI: So they just planted everything, prepared everything.

FS: Yeah.

TI: Well, at that point, they really didn't know what was going to happen.

FS: No.

TI: No one really knew.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2017 Densho. All Rights Reserved.