<Begin Segment 26>

DG: Let's talk about back to the build up towards World War II. Were you aware of any of the political atmosphere of the time?

KS: The only time we heard news or saw news was occasionally we'd go to a movie and there would be the Fox Movietone News, and some of those showed the Hitler advances in Europe and their associations with Japan. So I think, generally speaking, we were aware that there was a build up towards war and we were hoping that America would never have to go to war. But I remember in November of '41, I was taking a class in International Relations and the professor at that time was Professor George Taylor. He tried to make us aware of the possibilities of a conflict between Japan and America, and of course all of us in the classroom kept saying, oh no, we can't do it, we just can't. But, I remember in the last week in November, he paced back and forth in front of the class and he said, "Within two weeks, war is going to break out." So people who were in the know, knew this was coming. What a horrible thing to know something like this is coming. Sure enough, on December 7th, Japan attacked.

DG: And where were you?

KS: I was just finishing up my classes and deciding I'd better quit school.

TS: That was Sunday.

KS: That was Sunday. Well, school ended I think about the 10th of December, that was the first quarter, and I had put in my registration for the winter quarter but I went back to the registration and cancelled it so I wouldn't have to go back to school.

DG: Why did you do that?

KS: Well... I felt that, I would have to work very hard during the Christmas vacation to save up the rest of my money for the next quarter's tuition and it just seemed a little pointless. We didn't know at that time whether we were going to have a job the next week or not because...

DG: So you were impacted as a Japanese person?

KS: That's right. When I was working, I didn't know whether I was going to get fired next week or not.

DG: Where were you working?

KS: I was working for a Swiss family after school and also at the Women's University Club.

DG: Were there some bad feelings toward Japanese? Is that why you had these feelings?

KS: I don't think they were so much in the way of bad feelings, except that there was the feeling that you could get fired any day. It turned out...

DG: Well, how did you know that? Were you talking to your friends?

KS: Yes, I was talking to my friends and the whole climate of Seattle, knowing that people were at war, there was this anti-Japanese feeling that just went around. How could they do that? It was hard to figure.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.