<Begin Segment 2>

TI: Realizing that you weren't getting paid for this, this was a lot of work. What made you motivated to do, to do this?

RT: Well, I guess I've been a person -- well, I'm similar to my father. My father was the one that was willing to do things for anybody. In fact, he was so willing to do things, why, he even used to let people borrow money and never returned it to him. He would say, "We shouldn't worry about that. At least we helped him and we can feel good about it." And you know, the -- with the government, the United States government, puttin' all the Japanese in concentration camps and stuff like this -- to me, was all wrong. Now, I had come back from Japan on the last boat that docked in San Francisco. And I'll tell you why I don't believe that Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack. Now, how could it be a surprise attack? When I was living in Japan, I knew that Japan and the United State was going to war. And it was known on the streets in Japan that the Japanese submarines used to go into Pearl Harbor, and they knew where all the big ships were, and there was no secret. And in fact, they didn't even try to stop to let you know how they were gettin' into the place. And they said it was real simple because when they saw a big freighter or something gonna go in, they said, "We take the submarine and just go right near 'em and go right on into Pearl Harbor."

TI: That's interesting. So you were pretty surprised when you came back to the United States that people weren't saying the same things, or knew about this?

RT: Well, what surprised me was -- see, when we... I was very fortunate. The boat I came on was the Tatsuta Maru. And it was the last one to dock in San Francisco. Now, can you imagine? Here they're, they're turning around and not letting Japanese people coming into the United States anymore and they weren't buying things from Japan anymore. In fact, Roosevelt had put up a blockade in Japan. And today, I've always said when people talk to me about Japan declaring war by bombing Pearl Harbor, I always put a smile on my face, because the way I look at it is when you blockade a country, you're declaring war against 'em. 'Cause you're not lettin' any country go in with any kind of supplies. See, and the thing with Japan -- Japan is not a country that can live on its own. It doesn't have the natural resources. And I'll tell you, like when I was living there, all the buses, cabs, everything was running on steam. They had coal burners that make steam and they'd run that, and I used to chuckle to myself because these poor buses, if they half loaded or something, it's real nice, they can go over the hills. But when they get fully loaded, they can't go over the hills, so the guys would get out and they'd push the bus over the hill.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.