<Begin Segment 8>

[This transcript has been extensively edited by the narrator.]

SY: So you were how old when Pearl Harbor happened?

GN: I was fourteen going on fifteen and my brother was twelve.

SY: And you have strong memories of that day?

GN: Oh, yes. On December 7th... in fact, the booklet's out there in the other room. They started a project at Manzanar where they did oral interviews, and they had questions that they asked and we answered those questions. They're still doing that. They're still trying to gather these interviews with people. I've quite a few extra copies, but I don't think I have too many left. One of the questions they ask was, "Where were you and what happened on December 7th?" Do you want to skip over to that right now?

SY: Absolutely. Tell us what you said or what you remember.

GN: On December 7th, we were coming home from Union Church, and my grandfather was sitting in the front seat with my mother. He went to church not on a regular basis, but that Sunday he just felt that he should go to church. He came on the streetcar to Union Church, and my mother drove our car. We had the '32 Chevy my father had left, and Rosemary Sato had taught her how to drive, because she didn't know how to drive. We turned on the car radio as we were going home, and then we heard that Japan had (bombed Pearl Harbor). My grandfather couldn't speak English too well, but he could read and write and understand. And even in his album, it's written in both languages. So they dropped bombs on Pearl Harbor and my grandfather said, "Hide" -- that's my mother's name -- he was sitting in the front seat with her, she was driving. "Hurry up, I got to get home. I got to pack." So I was sitting in the backseat and I said, "Grandpa, where are you going? What trip are you going on?" Then he said, "Well, Japan's dropped bombs, and they're going to declare war on Japan, and I'm not a citizen. I'm a registered 'enemy alien,' I fought in the Japanese-Russian War." I said, "That was a long time ago. What would that have to do with this today?" He said, "Everything. They may think maybe that I'm a subversive." And so he said, "Well, I think I'd better be ready. I think before the end of the day is over, the FBI may come and pick me up." So we hurried on home, and it was lunchtime by then, but he went right to his study and he got a little briefcase out. I think I gave the briefcase to the Japanese American National Museum, it's a leather briefcase, and that's what he had used as a librarian in Japan, and he used it ever since. He put his Bible in there, he put his writing materials in there and he kept a journal. (He packed) underwear, wool socks, (gloves), then he put in long underwear, although we really didn't have too much need for long underwear, but he still had long underwear. In the wintertimes it does get cold. Better be prepared, he had long underwear. All in this little briefcase. Change of clothing, and then he laid out his heavy coat and his hat and his muffler on the bed, and then he came out and we had lunch.

He brought out his little notebooks, and we're all famous to this day, even including my son, always carries a little notebook in his shirt pocket with pen. That's my older son (Daniel), and I always carry around a little notebook. But anyway, he got all those little notebooks out, he had every place where the keys were in the house. Everything is labeled. Every key in the house had a little label on it so you know what it was for in English and in Japanese. So anyway, he said, "Okay, we have to get ready." The family treasures. We had paintings, we had scrolls, we had really wonderful books. He said, "You are not to get rid of any of these (even if people are scared) here. People are going to try to get rid of things. You're to find friends or neighbors to take care of these things for us during the war." I said, "Well, who says we're going anyplace?" He says, "You will." I said, "We'll, we're American citizens." "Doesn't matter." He said, "I think you'll go." He was a very astute man. So we had lunch, then we had supper. I said, "See, Grandpa? Nobody's going to come. You're not going to go away." And just when I was saying that, there was knock on the door. So he said to me, "Go answer the door." So I opened the door and there was this man with an FBI badge, he said, "Is (Tomoichi) Watanabe here?" And I said, "Yes." "Well, I'm here from the FBI." I said, "Where are you going to take him?" He said, "I can't tell you." I said, "He's all ready for you." So he came out, he was fully clothed, and he said goodbye to us. Got his gloves on and (coat and hat) because California winters are cold, and he disappeared into the darkness (carrying his briefcase).

SY: The FBI didn't search your home?

GN: No, just picked him up, and didn't tell us where they were going to take him. And we had neighbors that worked for the LAPD. One was an investigator on one side of us, and the other one was a regular police. And when they heard that they took my grandfather away, they said, "The Japanese are the most law-abiding people." They didn't ever remember booking a Japanese ever in the whole L.A. jail system. Ever. They said, "They're just barking up the wrong tree. Their loyalty is (unquestionable)." So anyway, they took him away. We did not know for six months where they had taken him. Michi Nishiura Weglyn got some pictures from the archives later on. And she sent us a picture and she said, "Is this your grandfather?" Because I had described what he had on when they took him away. There he was, sitting in this boxcar with all these men, some of them had yukatas on and zoris on. And you know where they took them? They took them to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where it was below zero degrees. Just like that, they took them. They were getting ready to take a bath and they're going to go to bed, they didn't give them a chance to take anything. [Interruption] They force-marched them in the snow, and they got frostbitten feet. Some old men, it was just too much for them, they got hypothermia and heart attack. (Narr. note: And then my grandfather even suspected food poisoning when many got violently ill after eating soup.)

[Interruption]

SY: And where was this exactly that they were taken?

GN: I have a list somewhere of all the different places. They took him to nine places. They moved him all around the country (and some with) freezing temperatures. Fort Sill, then he went to (Montana), which is even colder, some of the obscure places that we've never heard about. There was one place in Louisiana, and I had my son's (in-laws)... their picture is covered up over there. But my son's in-laws (live in Louisiana and) looked the place up, and he's a really good researcher. He used to be a commander in the U.S. Navy, so Joey went and did some research and said, "(Yes, it was Camp Livingston, L.A., and) it did have Japanese prisoners." He said he never knew that. It was an army base.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.