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SY: Let me go back a ways about the time maybe right before the war, before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. You were pretty active in the community, and you were living in the community. What would you say the community environment was like before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor?

YM: I could say they were very carefree, I think. If they talked about war, they didn't say too much unless they went to a battleship or something that came in and visiting, but aside of that, the men folks gambled their -- it was sometimes sad, but in a way it was... then my friend would go looking for his father, and he had gambled. When he used to go to the market, his father would take care of all the money, and he gambled it all away. And the son would take his father home, but they never scolded him. They let him do it again; but, of course, the son went him though this time.

SY: You mentioned if there was a party on the battleship, did Henry ever go to any parties?

YM: Oh, no. I never went.

SY: How about Henry?

YM: Oh, Henry went.

SY: And what kinds of things would he hear?

YM: Huh?

SY: What kinds of things would he say or hear?

YM: He didn't say much, but they're always talking like that, "There is going to be another war." But come to think of it, there was a book out, and I think I read it. I wish I remembered the title. It was a war between Japan and America, and I think Japan lost, but it was on the -- but I don't think it sell good or anything.

SY: Was this a fictional story?

YM: Yeah. Well, this man made it up because there was no such war. As far as I know, there was no such war, but he did say that it was... whether he was on the side of America or he was on the side of Japan, I do not know, but I remember reading the book because somebody lent it to me.

SY: Well, you had talked about a time when you remember Henry coming home after a party and where officers were drunk, Japanese officers were drunk. Can you tell me about that?

YM: Yeah. He would come home and naturally there was a lot drinking, and then he says, "We'll get them yet." I think, I'm saying it in English, but yatte ageru, you know. "We're going to get them. We're going to get them. Every time they are insulting us. We'll show them what Japanese could do."

SY: How did Henry respond to those comments?

YM: He was drinking so he didn't respond too much, I think. It didn't make much difference to him and to his friends. I really don't know.

SY: Well, how did you respond when Henry told you about this?

YM: Well, I didn't like it and I said, "Oh, it's such foolishness. It's such foolishness."

Yukiko M. Interview - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved. - <End Segment 20>