<Begin Segment 6>

DG: Did your father ever share with you where he was at, what he was doing on the day Pearl Harbor was bombed, and what his reactions were?

DR: Well, he said that it was... he knew they were going to war and everything else, but he said, well... he didn't really say much about it, but he, but when everything else happened, though, when the Japanese were taken off the island, he really felt bad. He didn't think that was right because they were American citizens, just like they were going to be American citizens, too, and that just wasn't right.

DG: And how about your mother? She was not in the United States when Pearl Harbor was bombed, is that correct?

DR: Oh, my mom? No, she wasn't. She was in Canada at the time, and then she came about the following year. 'Cause that was in December, wasn't it, '41? And then she came in '42, in June.

DG: So your father, at that time of the war, did he share feelings in general about the... it sounds like he had, he had an opinion on evacuation and internment. Did he share with you, in general, how the Filipino community reacted? Were there differing opinions on World War II and internment, or...

DR: Well, they didn't think that was right. They didn't think that was right... that that should happen. Because it has happened, you know. Just like, like if you talk about my mom and what she went through as a child, and taking her language away and everything else. And you can't be blamed for things that happened, but you can't change it, too. And Dad didn't like that. That he really felt bad about the whole thing. But what is your opinion, really? When you're a minority, what can you say?

DG: Well, it's interesting. Do you think that there was a special relationship between the minority communities on Bainbridge Island, because they were minority communities?

DR: I think so. I think so, They just, we all gave, you know, respected one another.

DG: Do you know if the two communities interacted socially, or was it purely a working relationship?

DR: I think basically, well, socially, some socially and some working relationship. I know Felix Narte, he really was part of the Kitamoto family, too, it seems.

DG: Do you have any stories, either your father or mother told you, or that you remember growing up to, as examples of the relationships between the Filipinos and the Japanese?

DR: Well, I know our neighbor, Terry Takemoto it used to be, she babysat for my sister and I a few times. And it was just kind of a nice relationship. My dad used to, like I say, used to share whatever salmon or whatever he had. It was just, he just was very respectful for the Japanese community. Like he called them "Mama-san Takemoto," and then "Mama-san Suyematsu." He just really respected the whole, the Japanese.

DG: I was going to ask about that earlier, when you mentioned people calling them "Mama." Is that a cultural thing?

DR: I don't know. I just know it by that's what my dad said, you know. I didn't question it, But that's what he called them. I don't know whether it was, it probably was a sign of respect. I know it was, because he respected them.

DG: I think my grandmother was known as "Mama-moto." [Laughs]

DR: Well, your grandmother... my Aunt Nora's granddaughter was, we had a baby, I had a baby shower at my house and your grandmother came to the baby shower. Mama Kitamoto. [Laughs]

DG: And what was, it must have... can you describe for me what it was like for your mother, coming down here for the first time as a nineteen-year-old and then getting married that first year. And so now starting to live here. Did she share with you what it was like for her to start to live here?

DR: Actually, it was fine because a lot of the other native ladies got married, too, to Filipinos, so they got together. That's how this Filipino Hall came, came into play. And we had dances and parties and birthdays and weddings here.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.