<Begin Segment 12>

RT: And I didn't realize the enormity until much later, but I soon found out what it meant for all of us because they came for my dad that night, early in the morning of December 8th. And...

AI: What happened?

RT: They picked him up. Well, I was sleeping in a bedroom on the main floor, which was fairly close to my folks' room -- in other words, not quite adjacent. But I was awakened by this commotion. Now, I don't know about my brothers. I've never talked to them about it, but they were sleeping upstairs, in that -- remember I told you that they had built this two-story addition -- and they were sleeping in the bedroom up there. Oh, my, my mother. I told you she's very outspoken. And she is the one that I heard. I did not hear my father say anything, but my mother went on a rampage. I mean, she didn't care if they were FBI men or not, and she was proclaiming to them that she was an American citizen, and she "had the rights of an American citizen, and how dare they come breaking into my house?" [Laughs] And oh, yes, I heard her. And I wasn't sure what was going on. I really didn't know that they were going to take my dad. I just thought that it was a little -- it must be a very wild event for my mother, for sure, because she was really carrying on, but that didn't matter to them.

But I know that they... you know, one of the things I know that they took from his desk was his diary. He kept a diary. And do you know that they took his diary, and after they took that diary, he did not keep a diary for years. He gave up keeping a diary, and I suppose in his mind he just felt that that was something that did him in, maybe, or it was incriminating. Although, of course, his diary was just a record of the day-to-day events. But I know that that was one of the things that was taken. And it took him a long time. He keeps a diary now; in fact, he keeps a five-year diary. [Laughs]

[Interruption]

AI: Well, so that night you were hearing this commotion going on. Did you go out to see what was happening?

RT: No. I don't recall that I did. I was just lying there, rather frightened, I think, and wondering what was going on. But I must have sensed that it was not the time for me to go running out there, and I don't even know if I went out after they left. But as I say, it was early in the morning, probably 2:00, 3:00 in the morning, and I would think that, probably after they left, that I must have gotten up to ask my mother what had happened. But I will never forget her screaming and yelling at the authorities, and insisting on her rights.

AI: But it didn't do any good, because they took him.

RT: No, no, it didn't change a thing.

AI: So at that point then, when you did get up and he was gone, did you know where they had taken him?

RT: No, I didn't know anything, all I knew was that he was gone. I don't even know if they had told her. I don't know how she handled it, but she did. And she certainly didn't convey any of that fear to us. She was that kind of individual. She was not going to fall apart, and she didn't. She, she just carried on.

AI: So the next day, she was conducting the business of the farm and you went to school.

RT: Oh, yes.

AI: Your brothers went to school.

RT: Yes, indeed. We just carried on with our life and, of course, that's why I say, Monday, you go to school, your father's been picked up and you don't know where he is, then you hear this speech, and all of a sudden you realize that, hey, you're different.

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