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Q: Can we go back? Do you remember any incidents of what you call hysteria in Chicago or just generally?

MY: Well, very explicitly, in Chicago, I remember that Mayor Kelly, immediately after Pearl Harbor happened on December 7th, had issued a proclamation declaring a blackout in Chicago. And I guess the genesis of this is back in 1937, the Russian bombers had flown over the North Pole and landed at Vancouver, which incidentally, Fort Vancouver was commanded by General Marshall, who later became Chief of Staff. With the capability of aircraft crossing the North Pole, although it was a one-way trip, there was a fear that certainly the Japanese enemy could send bombers over Chicago. And as a result, we did have a very explicit blackout. I also remember a family by the name of Maruyama, who ran a curio shop on the north side. And during the night, somebody threw a rock or a brick through the front window, and there were cases of vandalism. There were two or three such incidents, but obviously, Chicago being a city of three and a half million people, the presence of Orientals, particularly not distinguishing between Chinese and Japanese, we ran into no particular personal incidents.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1983, 2010 Densho and Steven Okazaki. All Rights Reserved.