<Begin Segment 3>

JN: Okay, let's think back to December 7th when Pearl Harbor was bombed. What do you remember about that day? Where were you?

MN: I was working for the army man, family, in Port Madison, and when the war broke out -- and I had my birthday December 6th, next day was Pearl Harbor. So I was fired right away and I had to go home.

JN: How did you feel?

MN: Oh, I felt terrible, scared, oh, that was a horrible day. But my father was still home, so I remem-, he always said we were minority people, you know, race, so we should always obey what they say and not cause trouble, and try to live a peaceful life.

[Interruption]

JN: When you were working for the general -- and then just kind of tell us, like, what you did there, and that you were living there in his house, and so they understand what your situation was, you know. And then, like, what you did for them, and then how, and then how they treated you until, until that day. 'Cause that's a really good story and it would be good to build on it some more.

MN: We had a strawberry farm then, and so after the berries are over, the girls would go out to work somewhere, and my sister, eldest sister stayed home, and my other sister, Kay, would go into Seattle and do housework. And then I did housework on Bainbridge, in Port Madison. And they had children, a boy maybe about three years old and then a newborn baby that came. So I had to do cooking, taking care of the little boy, and just every... we really worked hard. So, and then I was... and then my birthday, December 6th was my birthday, and I became nineteen, and the next day was the Pearl Harbor, so they had to let me go.

JN: How did they treat you before?

MN: Oh, they were very nice people, very nice. But we really had to work hard for our living. 'Cause we had to cook and watch the children, and all kinds of things like that. Clean...

JN: Did you have your own room there?

MN: Uh-huh, I had my own room, and the end of the week, I used to, they would let me come home on Saturday and Sunday.

JN: How did they, did they feel badly about letting you go, or did they feel they had to?

MN: Yeah, I think they were scared just as much as we were, and so they just had to let me go right away.

JN: How did your family react? Did all of your sisters lose their jobs?

MN: No, Kay still stayed on where she worked in Seattle. And my sister Elsie was the eldest, so she took over everything. Of course, after the Pearl Harbor, they came right, FBI came right away and they took my father. So I, when I came home after I got fired, my father was gone already. They took him away. And then we, we just had, we had cleared the strawberry farm land down below, and so there was about maybe half a dozen or so dynamite left in the barn. So when they searched everything, they found this dynamite, so first thing, they just, you know, dynamite, so they just took my father right away. And so I didn't get to see him when I got fired and came home. So that was really hard, just sad. And then Mother had four of us girls and she had to be in charge. But my sister, the eldest sister was home, so she had to take over everything and so we could get things going on the farm again.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.