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BN: So from here I'm going to now start switching, asking about the war and the war years. And starting by, how do you remember hearing about December 7 and the attack on Pearl Harbor and the aftermath?

SM: I can clearly remember on Sunday, December the 7th, in the afternoon, I went to a theater. The name of the theater was called Uptown Theater on Sutter Street. And after the theater, I remember coming out and I saw these headlines on the local newspaper, "Pearl Harbor is attacked." And so I went home and I remember asking my father, "Why would Japan do such a thing, and where's Pearl Harbor?" So that's the first time I remember, it happened that Sunday afternoon, December the 7th, after I came out of the theater when I heard and saw the newspaper headlines.

BN: And then this was on a Sunday, so did you go to school the following Monday?

SM: Yes, we did. Went to Raphael Weill school. Some of my friends mentioned the teachers making accusations about, "You people bombed Pearl Harbor." My teacher did not, but I've heard from others in the class who said similar statements. And stop to think about it, a teacher promoting racial hatred in a class of young kids, but that's what happened in San Francisco. And I understood it happened at other places as well.

BN: And just to back up for a minute, about what percentage of the student body at your school was of Japanese ancestry?

SM: In San Francisco I would roughly guess, based on photos of the groups I have, maybe about twenty percent were Japanese. Very few Blacks, maybe one or two Blacks out of a class, several Latinos and many whites.

BN: Any Chinese?

SM: I don't remember Chinese in our neighborhood. There may have been one or two, but very, very rare. We had a Chinese, a couple of Chinese restaurants in Japantown, but Chinatown was about, about a mile away, so they had their own area.

BN: So now to go back to Pearl Harbor day and aftermath, were you aware of, like, kind of other Issei men being picked up and interned at that point in the days right after.

SM: We had heard a few people were gathered. We heard that the minister of the Konko church, which was a block from us, that he was removed from the Sunday service, they were ready, and a few others. And I'm not sure why, but my father was not among those who was removed early to go to a Department of Justice camp.

BN: Do you know offhand if other of his colleagues were arrested or interned, other newspaper people from his newspaper or even from the rival paper?

SM: I don't know if there's... I just don't know anyone else. I found out later my wife's father was one of those because it was a business owner. I've heard that some other business owners were also removed, and of course, I knew the minister was removed, and so they were pretty selective about who they removed early.

BN: Did you know your wife at that time, or did you meet her only later?

SM: I vaguely remember her because she lived around the corner. But I did not really know her well until after we came back from camp.

BN: Okay. What do you remember, do you remember other things from this period between Pearl Harbor and the actual exclusion orders? I mean, what was kind of the feeling in the household, or were you aware of that as a child?

SM: Well, we knew something was going on in the way of having us prepare for a move. There were newspaper headlines saying that removal is close, or ouster is close. And so I think most people knew that the day was coming. But I don't remember a lot of detail about how we were told.

BN: Right, because you were, like, eight or nine?

SM: I was nine at the time.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.