<Begin Segment 12>

SY: When Pearl -- when the -- there was the bombing of Pearl Harbor. At that time, your family had been established pretty well in Lake City for probably about thirty years. What reactions did you get from your neighbors and clients of the Oriental Gardens?

MN: Well, the neighbors were still very friendly, and they'd come and want to know how we were. And it didn't seem that we lost any clients. We had this retail business on the highway, and we still had customers coming. So it didn't seem like it made very much difference. But I think down in Japantown, there probably were serious incidents.

SY: Well, what personal experiences or feelings did you have after the Pearl Harbor bombing?

MN: Well, I had a very impressive experience because I was going to the university and I was also living on Mercer Island. I was kind of a mother's helper to a doctor's little son. So I'd go up to the toll plaza and get on the Medina bus and come into the city, and then go to school. But the day after Pearl Harbor, Monday, I was climbing on the bus like I always (did), and the bus driver looked at me, and he said, "I'm sorry, but I can't take you." He couldn't take any Japanese in or out of the city. So I backed off the bus, and there wasn't anything to do but walk across that bridge. So I walked all across the floating bridge. And I think I cried most of the way. And I was wondering, "Why, why do I have to do this? What'd I do to deserve this?" But then I had to walk through that dark tunnel, and I was afraid maybe somebody would stop or something. But I walked all the way to Rainier Avenue and got on a city bus and went to class. And I was late for my art class. And I told the professor, "I'm late because I had to walk across the bridge," and he says, "Well, that's okay." He didn't make any fuss about it.

SY: So at the time of the bombing, you were a university student, but you...

MN: Yes.

SY: Are you saying that you didn't feel any reactions from students or professors or anyone else, other than that one bus driver?

MN: Well, that was quite an experience for me. But then the doctor took me in his car back to work. And then, then he'd take me to, to Seattle, too. So I didn't have to ride the bus anymore. But that was about the only experience that was serious, because of Pearl Harbor.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.