<Begin Segment 8>

TI: So before we go to the camp, let's go to the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed. Do you remember that day and what you were doing when you heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

SI: I think we heard it over the radio, I kind of remember my parents told me, but there was nothing we could do, we just had to wait and see what they were going to do us.

TI: Now, do you remember at all just the feeling when you said maybe you were there, your parents told you or they heard about it. Did you get a sense from them that the gravity of the situation?

SI: We kind of thought there's something going on. We have to worry about what's going to happen.

TI: Now do you recall or notice any things that happened after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, that things people did?

SI: I don't know whether the white people, Caucasians, kind of thought we were part of that or something. We didn't have anything to do with it, but they treated us a little differently, I don't know.

TI: How about, so when, what grade were you in school when the bombing of Pearl Harbor happened?

SI: Gee, I don't remember. What year was it?

TI: It'd be 1941, the end of, December of '41.

SI: '41. What would I be? 1941, how old would I be?

TI: 1929, so it'd be... you'd be twelve years old, so you'd be like fifth or sixth grade.

SI: Twelve, let me see. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, seventh grade.

TI: Seventh grade.

SI: I think I was in the seventh grade when that happened.

TI: Now, when you think about it, do you recall your classmates or anyone treating you differently?

SI: No, they treated us good. Maybe just a few people, the older people would make us feel bad sometimes, you know.

TI: In your class, were there other Japanese Americans in your class?

SI: I think my cousin, like me and my twin, and then my cousin, I had a cousin the same age.

TI: Now do you remember what happened at the farm, what your parents had to do to get ready when they, the notices to leave and things like that, what preparations...

SI: We had to give up our lease, and we had to get rid of all the equipment we had, whatever we had. But if they didn't buy it, we had to just leave it. And the farm, everything on the farm, we had to just leave.

TI: Did you have any pets or anything?

SI: Dog maybe.

TI: Do you remember what happened to the dog?

SI: Gee, I don't even remember. Maybe I didn't have a dog, but I thought we had dogs before. We probably had to leave him or give it to somebody, I don't know.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.