<Begin Segment 3>

JN: Think back to December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor day. What do you remember about that day? Where were you? How did you feel?

TE: Oh, we were home. I think we were looking at the comic section. I just remember being... and then I think the radio must have been on. 'Cause then my uncle heard it and he said... oh, what did he say? Really, this was the first time I noticed the swearing. They never, hardly ever swore. He said, "Goddamn!" But I didn't know what was really, what he was mad about. But that's about all I remember about that day.

JN: Did your family respond, you know, other than the initial shock, did they feel any, feel threatened or feel that something was going to happen to them? Do you remember?

TE: I don't remember anything about that.

JN: How did you feel at school? You were very young, but do you feel that people treated you differently after the...

TE: No, I don't recall anything like that.

JN: So when, when the roundups started, then you must have been pretty surprised because life kind of went on as usual, even after the attack. How did that feel when you...

TE: Well, let me see. I didn't know there was gonna be a roundup or anything. I came, let me see... oh, I know, I came home one day from school and there was no kids outside. Usually there's kids outside, you know, my brother or my cousins running around outside playing. But there was nobody around and... or if I get close, really close to the house, then somebody usually pops out of the door. But nobody popped, you know, came to the door. And when I opened the door there was a man there. And he said, "Well, who are you?" And I didn't know what to say. And... let me see. Oh, and my mother said, "Well, she's just coming home from school." As soon as I stepped into the house I could feel this tension in the air. And all the kids and my mother and my Aunt Fumi were all in the dining room, sitting. All the kids were just huddled around. And I don't remember anything else, really, after that.

JN: Did the FBI people take your father and your uncles? Or did they... what did they do?

TE: Well, let's see. Yeah, they came after my father. But I really don't know if it was that same day or a few days after. But I remember that day they came and got him. Oh yeah, my mother took me to see him one day at the immigration office. And I remember it was, seemed to me, it was kind of dreary day. I know I have to get fingerprinted. I didn't know, I mean, I didn't know what the reason that was for. Why they were putting ink on my fingers and making me make prints on the piece of paper. Then I know we had to hurry up and get home, I think, before it got dark. That was it. I really don't remember talking to him or anything like that.

JN: Did they take your uncles as well? Or just your father?

TE: No, they didn't go.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.