<Begin Segment 6>

LH: So the war comes along in 1941 and then in February of the next year, in '42, the FBI comes to your household, pays a visit. What happened?

MN: It's a re-creation in some part in my -- the only part I directly remember is I think that I was kind of really impressed because it was first time I saw my mom cry. I think that was the very first time, and I'm thinking my mom crying and just kind of impressed me. But apparently they came very early in the morning and they kind of -- my mom went to answer the door and they kind of shoved her aside, not brutally, but shoved her aside, and then they kind of just stormed the house and shook my father, made him get up. When they started going upstairs, my mom shouted upstairs to my sisters who said get dressed, get dressed because one of my sisters loved to run around nude. And [Laughs] apparently the men thought that my mom was giving some kind of signal or something 'cause apparently they drew out their guns and rushed upstairs. And then they barged in my sisters' bedroom and asked my sisters if they have ever seen anything like this and showed them the gun. "Does your father have one like this?" And they said only the toy. My other sister remembers the men putting their hands through the sugar bowls and through the rice bowls, and she was thinking, "Oh, that's dirty" and apparently ransacked closets looking for things. My sister says they took away with them two items. One was my father's bow. My father apparently was really good with a bow and arrow, and he loved to show off how good he was. He always was good. We used to go to carnivals later on and he used to be able to shoot them down, but they took my father's bow and one sword that we had apparently.

LH: Sort of a souvenir Japanese sword?

MN: I think so. I don't know where we got it. I think it was a sword and the bow that they took and then took my father.

LH: So in the meantime while they were ransacking the house, what was your father doing?

MN: My father said that they watched him even doing morning toiletry. They would not give him any privacy. Then they got him dressed and then they pulled him in the car and drove him off so he didn't get a chance to say anything to the family. He was kind of in shock. He didn't know what he would have said anyway, but in some ways they were expecting it. The curfew was on and other people were being arrested so I guess in some ways it was not completely a shock, but still when that happens to you, you kind of think it's not going to happen to you. So he was somewhat prepared and yet very, surprised and he was taken away.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.