<Begin Segment 14>

EG: And you were majoring in business at the university?

TM: Yes.

EG: And you finished?

TM: No. I was supposed to be the class of 1942, but Pearl Harbor came December of '41. And, well, prior to that, I had to register. And I had, I always carried a draft card. And after I came back from Alaska, I had to report to the draft board and they said my number was up. And I said, "Well, I have another year to attend the university," and then they said I can apply for deferment, which I did. And they gave me a deferment for one quarter, until sometime in December of '41. But the Pearl Harbor attack came, and then they wouldn't defer me anymore. They said I had to, I had to serve. And so I gave up the university and left my belongings, some of them at my uncle's place, and some at my Caucasian family. And got ready to be drafted.

EG: How was it for you with Pearl Harbor? Did things change for you when Pearl Harbor happened?

TM: I personally thought that something was coming. Because up to that time, well, the papers, the radios and consul general -- not the consul general -- but the consul of Japan were invited to speak here and there. His English wasn't too good and not many people understood him, until they hired a Nisei lawyer here to speak for Japan. And I used to listen. And like, well, you were, I was in a restaurant in downtown and right behind me there were people who were talking bad things about Japan. So I knew something was coming up. Nobody knew when, of course. And so when it did come, I thought, "Oh my, now what do I do?" I had my folks in Japan, brother and sister there and myself here. And then I'm going to have to serve in the American army, which I was willing to do. I'm an American by birth. And I was a little bit apprehensive of what people might say or do. But personally, American people were very nice to me. I went to school -- Pearl Harbor was Sunday -- I went to school on Monday and the first class, I forgot what it was, but four or five of them, American boys came to me and said, "Don't worry." They said, "It's not your fault, and so if anybody gives you a bad time, let us know." And I thought they were very nice to say that.

EG: I should say.

TM: Yeah. They said, "Don't worry." And I heard from a couple of (Japanese) girls that the regular bus they took to go to the university didn't stop for them. But, of course, I was driving my own car, so I had no problem with the transportation, but I heard something like that. And then another person, I think, said something like, gas station didn't sell gas to him. You know, but that was one person that said they wouldn't sell him gas. [Laughs]

EG: But you personally didn't have a bad experience, on campus things were...

TM: Personally, on the campus, and on the way to and from, I had no problem.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.