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EO: Can we go back to December 7th?

HU: Yeah.

EO: When you heard this... did you, did you have friends or family picked up right away?

HU: Oh, yeah. I used to go to the near market, the pool hall there. There were a lot of Japanese gathered around during, after the Pearl Harbor incident. A lot of 'em, they lost their jobs or they're waiting for something to happen. But I hear so much that people start missing there. You know, the people I know were already being taken in by the FBI, and prior to war, they had about 150 Japanese veterans. That means they serve in Japan, those people. They immigrate to the United States, but they had an organization to, you know, once in a while they meet together. And in the United States, they have people serve in the first World War I, the Japanese people, still they're not American citizens but they volunteered to join the United States army. And they had not too many, but they had -- I don't know how many -- but they had a bunch of people there. In there, you hear the name Slocum, Tokie Slocum. He was the head of the American veterans, Japanese veterans organization. I read in Tule Lake FBI record, more like a congressional record. One guy showed me the record, and Slocum, prior to Pearl Harbor incident, he went over to the Japanese veterans organization that was headed by Dr. Honda. He was a doctor in Gardena or someplace, a small city there. And he talked to him and said, "Let's get together and acquainted. Because, after all, we are all Japanese descendants." So they get together and have a dinner same time they took all the name and address and all those that, Japanese veterans and they gave it, that to the FBI. So the FBI knows where they live and what age and so on. So as soon as war started, they been all detained to the United States enemy area in camp and the same way, the JACL had the big sign first in San Pedro. They used to have a drugstore they called Iwagi Drug Store in San Pedro side. They put about fifty feet or more, longer, big banner there, anti-Axis committee headquarters. And their function, as we all know, inform anybody who talks favor to Japan or anything. So, a lot of people in the pool hall, we went there, they see the man, like I could name him, but he was a active JACL, he come around, people quit talking about the war. Because as soon as they started talk anything, about how the war goin' and so on, they're afraid to get informed, you know.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1994, 2003 Densho and Emiko Omori. All Rights Reserved.