Densho Digital Archive
Emiko and Chizuko Omori Collection
Title: Frank Miyamoto Interview
Narrator: Frank Miyamoto
Interviewers: Chizu Omori (primary), Emiko Omori (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: September 28, 1992
Densho ID: denshovh-mfrank-05-0003

<Begin Segment 3>

CO: What do you remember happening when Pearl Harbor took place? In your own family...

FM: Yes. I was, at this point... let me back up. I had gone to the University of Chicago for my doctoral work and having completed the study phase of my doctorate, I came back to Seattle with an appointment, a very minor appointment on the faculty in the Department of Sociology. And therefore I was teaching sociology at the point when the outbreak of war occurs. Sunday morning of December 7, a memorable date and day, I can recall sitting at my desk getting ready for the next day's lecture, when -- and listening to the New York Philharmonic on the radio -- when this interruption occurs announcing some kind of major disturbance in Pearl Harbor and the like. And very rapidly, the story unfolds about the Pearl Harbor attack of the Japanese planes. So my first reaction was, "My God, what is going to happen here?" And the immediate next question was, "How will the students react when I see them in the morning?" The surprising thing to me -- or perhaps not so surprising as somewhat astonishing thing to me -- was that the students were very considerate of my situation and when I started off rather stiffly perhaps on my morning lecture, they showed facially, or by other reactions that they were supportive of me, and that was, of course, very gratifying. And after the class, there were more than, there was more than one student who came up to express his sympathy and concern for me in the situation.

[Interruption]

CO: But do you remember how the community reacted? I'm talking about the Japanese American community...

EO: And yourself. How did you feel when you heard the, you were listening to the radio...

FM: How did I feel about... well, I suppose the effect of something like that is numbing so it's a little hard to recall exactly how I felt about the situation except for this kind of shock and numbness, in a sense. But I'm afraid I reacted to it both as a person and as a sociologist, which is rather typical of my reaction to any critical situation I encounter. As a sociologist, I wondered, "Now, how will the Japanese people react to this kind of situation?" and I began to make analyses of what their reactions may be. Personally, I, my concern was, given the ambiguity of the Japanese American situation on the West Coast, what is going to happen to us? And that kind of concern was the immediate foremost reaction. The day following, or within the day following, there were a couple things which happened which I recall vividly. One, the FBI proceeded to pick up Issei residents of the community. And I had again, ambivalent feelings about this because of what I felt was probably the unfairness of many of these raids. And on the other hand, the feeling that it was generally a necessary part of a situation of this kind where the federal government doesn't know what to do with the immigrant population given the circumstances of war. The other thing that happened was that President Roosevelt's speech to Congress, the "Stab in the Back" address, and again, I suppose I reacted with a certain ambivalence. Namely, this, the Pearl Harbor attack was indeed a most unfortunate way to launch an attack upon the U.S. and at the same time that I get the feeling... but if they are to start a war, as the Japanese gave every indication that they might, how else would they, should they do it except by what Roosevelt calls a "stab in the back"? So this kind of ambivalence, I think, pursues me throughout this period of the early phase of the war.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1992, 2003 Densho and Emiko Omori. All Rights Reserved.