<Begin Segment 2>

JN: Think back on December 7, 1942, Pearl Harbor day. What do you remember about that day? Where were you?

YY: 1941.

JN: Oh sorry, 1941. Where were you? How did you feel? How did your family react to the news of the war?

YY: You know, the weather was just like this, that day. It was a Sunday and I had arranged with my friend Sally to go bike riding that afternoon and to go to Toshi Yukawa's house, which was further, what, a couple of miles further. And so I met Sally at this particular corner and as we met and we were gonna go on to Toshi's place, these people that lived right there says, "Oh, the neighbors are at war." And I thought, "Neighbors?" Our neighbors were Mikamis and we didn't have any problem. And so we let it go at that and we went on and went to Toshi's, rode the bike and then eventually came home. I came home and I told my sisters and brother that, "This is what those people said." So they put on the radio and hear this news about the Pearl Harbor. And so all afternoon and evening, that's all we heard, the news and how Japan was advancing. It had gone into Thailand and all that. We didn't know what all that meant.

The next day was Monday, we had to go back to school. Well, you know, we felt different. No one had said anything to us, but simply because of who we were, we were very nervous. The teacher explained to the class that we were Americans, we didn't have anything to do with the war. But, nevertheless, we felt a little bit uneasy. But as time went on, the students and the teachers were more accepting and we went on our usual activities. But you know, it wasn't very long. In fact, in the beginning of January when this news commentator on the radio started talking about moving the Japanese from the West Coast because they were a threat and all this and that started this talk of evacuation. That was the very preliminary. The other people, business people, all joined in. So that was the growing sentiment.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.