<Begin Segment 17>

TI: So, Betty, we're going to start the third segment.

BK: Huh?

TI: We're going to start the third segment.

BK: Oh, okay.

TI: And I'm going to lead the questions for a while. And so I wanted to go back to December 7, 1941. And when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, do you remember that day?

BK: Yeah. We came home from church, changed our clothes, and I was playing marbles in the alley. Then my mother called us in for lunch, and then she said, "I have something to tell you." So I said, "Okay." So we were all listening, and then she said, "Japan bombed Pearl Harbor." I don't know where Japan is, and I don't know where Pearl Harbor is. So my older brother, you know, said, "Why?" And she couldn't give us an answer as to why, but that's where I was when I first heard it.

TI: And what kind of reaction did your mother have? Was it matter of fact, or was she scared?

BK: No. Since I didn't know where Pearl Harbor was or where Japan was, it didn't bother me one way or the other. I mean, I think it hit us when the FBI came and searched our house, and I was gonna say something and my sister said, "Don't, they're FBI." And I said, "So?" They're people, I mean, they have no business dumping drawers of clothes. What are they looking for? Dad wasn't into anything other than sumo.

TI: So what were you going to say to the FBI? What did your sister stop you from saying?

BK: 'Cause then she thought I might get arrested.

TI: So you were going to say something harsh or bad to the FBI?

BK: No. I was going to tell them, I mean, "Why do you have to dump drawers of clothes?" And I said, you know, my only thing my dad was interested, not in the Japanese organizations or anything like that. He was a member of the Buddhist church, and he was into sumo, but sumo is a sport.

TI: And so you and your sister were there, were any of your other brothers there when the FBI came?

BK: Yes.

TI: And so all of you just sort of stood there and just watched all this happening?

BK: [Nods]

TI: Did they take your father away?

BK: No. I mean, if they were going to, I would have said something, because he had nothing to do, and he didn't belong to any of the associations or anything like that, he just was into sumo.

TI: How about other families in Isleton? Did the FBI pick up any men?

BK: Yeah, mostly like the schoolteachers. And it's funny, they take the men, but they didn't take the women. And you know, I always wondered why. They were both schoolteachers, nothing more.

TI: And then although you were young, I mean, did you think about anything? That here, the FBI comes, they take away some of the men from the community, did you think anything?

BK: No.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.