<Begin Segment 25>

DG: So where were you when Pearl Harbor, you heard about Pearl Harbor?

FN: Well it so happened that Betty and I went, went to Fifth Avenue Theater. There was something interesting there. And then while we were sitting watching the movie, all at once, oh, they said oh, breaking news or something, you know? They said, Oh, Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japan. Oh boy. And then we thought, "Oh my gosh, what should we do?" So we hustled out and came, came right home. But it was hard to believe a thing like that.

DG: What did you think would happen to you?

FN: Well, we, I don't know what we thought at that time but we sure hustled out of there fast.

DG: Then when did the FBI come?

FN: Well, I don't recall whether they came right away. But they did come to, they came as they did to most Japanese families. They came and searched the home and questioned, asked all kinds of questions. And the only reason my husband was -- of course he belonged to the Japanese Chamber of Commerce all that kind of thing. But my, his, his father used to subscribe to a magazine that was very pro-Japanese. Of course he didn't even read it. But it, it would come and that magazine was supposed to be really pro-Japanese. So then, right away he was one of the first to get taken. So. But of course he didn't, they didn't come get him. Didn't they all have to go? Go to the immigration. They didn't, they didn't take him.

DG: I thought. Oh.

FN: No, they didn't take him, they gave him.

DG: What did they do, send you a letter or?

FN: Huh? No, they all, Japanese, they all knew when they had to go at a certain time.

DG: You're --

FN: Yeah, so I was left with mother-in-law. And then my brother-in-law was still there, was still living with us, he'd been living with us. He's the one that drew the plans for the house. He was archi, architect. But he did well after he recovered. In camp he married and --

DG: Okay, let's stay with when your husband was picked up. Or when he wasn't picked up. He walked to the immigration. So what did he take?

FN: What did he take?

DG: Right.

FN: Oh. [Laughs] I don't know, just a suitcase with what he had, what he needed to wear. He didn't take...

DG: What did you think was going to happen when he left?

FN: Well, I don't recall much of that --

DG: Were you upset?

FN: Well what could happen, what could happen?

DG: I don't know. [Laughs]

FN: See that's what I mean, what could happen to you? You just have to take what comes, what comes. And in those days we were frightened, but there wasn't much we could do.

DG: Were you upset, were you mad?

FN: What?

DG: Were you mad about it?

FN: Well we wonder what he did was wrong. You know he never did anything that was really against this country. Why should they pick him up, but later I found out that was the reason why he was.

DG: Because of those magazines.

FN: Yeah, because of that magazine. I think that there was a lot of cases like that too.

DG: Well so did you expect him to come home right away?

FN: Well no. I didn't. I knew they were all going to Missoula, Montana.

DG: Oh, you did know.

FN: Yeah, we all knew that they were going, were all going to Montana. But he, he didn't stay there very, you know, they released a lot of them after so many months there.

DG: Well but he was there three months.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.