Densho Digital Archive
Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community Collection
Title: Kay Sakai Nakao Interview
Narrator: Kay Sakai Nakao
Interviewer: Debra Grindeland
Location: Bainbridge Island, Washington
Date: February 25, 2006
Densho ID: denshovh-nkazuko-01-0001

<Begin Segment 1>

DG: Okay, Kay, we're just, I'm going to start right at the period right before the war. And if you could tell me, just to start off with, about you and your immediate family at that time.

DG: Well, when the war broke out, we were living in a farmhouse where the Ordway School is now. That used to be all Sakai farm. And so we built that house in 1936, so it wasn't that old in 1942 when we evacuated. So it was kind of hard to part with our new home, your safe haven. So we just, I don't know, we were heartbroken, but what can you say? It happened, we had to do what we had to do. So there were five girls and one brother, Mom and Dad, there were eight of us. So, well, it was hard to believe that we all had to go, being American citizen. And at first we thought probably our parents would be going. And then the government decided "Jap is a Jap" so the citizens and everybody needed to go. So it was a heartbreaker to uproot and go where you didn't even know where you were going. They never told us where we were going, if it's gonna be hot or if it's gonna be cold or anything, which sort of -- I don't know how the others felt, but I felt like I was kind of up in the air and I couldn't come down on earth to get my feet on earth, to really feel sort of secure. I don't know if that's the word, right word to use, but you're just left kinda dangling, wondering.

DG: So can you describe -- let's go back even before the order came, but to Pearl Harbor. Do you remember where you were that day and how you heard the news of the bombing?

KN: Yes. I don't know why I was on the bicycle going down Madison Avenue, Sunday morning. I'm quite sure it was Sunday morning. And my Caucasian friends came out and said something about, "There's the war," or something about Pearl Harbor, but that didn't mean a thing to me. I didn't know where Pearl Harbor was. And I knew Japan was so far away, non-reachable. And then I went home, turned around, went home and we listened to the radio. And then it was real. Until then I wasn't too sure.

DG: And do you remember what your reactions were, or, and your parents?

KN: Well, my parents were very, very shocked, and they thought that was a very bad move on the Japan part. They were speaking in Japanese, so you know, I was understanding what they were trying to say, and they really felt bad about it. Because they always felt like they were American citizens, children being educated in America, and they never wanted to go back to Japan. So they felt bad about the whole situation. And in fact, my dad -- I didn't know this until it happened -- that he went and turned in his life insurance policy and bought liberty bonds at that time. He wanted to help the American cause, you know. So I thought that was good of him to do that.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.