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MA: And so we were talking earlier about Pearl Harbor and you, at the time, at the day, December 7, 1941, you were a junior in high school?

HT: Yeah.

MA: Okay, so you were in high school. And can you tell me, like, what you were thinking when you first heard the news about Pearl Harbor?

HT: We were watching the movie at the church that night and then we were watching war pictures and stuff. And then, these people came out, they said, we just heard that, so then we left and then went home right away. That happened, I think it was, no, it was Sunday morning isn't it? And so then I thought to myself, at that time, I thought, "Oh, what am I going to do?" I really felt, I don't know if I'm... I'm really proud of my heritage and I didn't feel that I was, I didn't know anything about Japan at that time. I'd never visited or anything. I'm an American citizen. I've considered myself in the United States. But I had mixed feelings, I guess. I felt sorry for my parents and they never said anything about going back or anything like that. It was just, I don't know, it's just, it was a very sad time for me. 'Cause I was wondering how other people would feel. And I shouldn't have been, I shouldn't have said that because I really should have thought to myself, "I am an American citizen." But it's very difficult.

MA: What, what did your parents... what were your parents' reactions about Pearl Harbor?

HT: I don't know. They didn't say too much. They were just...I don't remember. They don't say too much about it or anything. So they just felt sorry for their relatives out there. Especially when they found out two of her brothers were killed during the atomic bomb. Because the rest of the family were out in the mountains. They must have known something was going to happen because later on I went twice to Japan -- we took a baseball team to Japan. That's the time that... but the second time around we went to visit my relatives. We were given a three week full vacation paid from his work. So that's when we went back to see, this is where it happened and all kinds of stuff.

MA: And it sounds like in your high school people were pretty supportive of you, at least.

HT: Yes, they didn't talk bad about it or anything to me.

MA: What about the town of Parlier? Did you feel the same way or were people a little bit more...

HT: Well, we were with the Japanese part, so we weren't actually out there that much. Not that I know of. See, the American section was out, the Japanese section was just a little area.

MA: Oh, I see. So you had your own community.

HT: Yeah, right next to the Japanese school and the church. And so that's about it. But, other than that it was, I don't know. I didn't feel any.

MA: What about, like, with your friends? Do you remember talking about Pearl Harbor or hearing rumors about any type of...

HT: Isn't that funny? We never talked about it. I think they were trying not to say too much and they didn't want to say anything too much, I didn't want to say anything either. We rode on the bus, everybody was on the same bus. But I don't know. It was just, I guess I was a kid yet. It makes a big difference. I'm sure the adults were, the older people were probably, there were a lot of older people that owned a lot of -- in Sanger there were a lot of farms and stuff that they owned because the children were much older. But it was sad.

MA: Well, and your, you had a story about your sister who was valedictorian and she wasn't able to attend graduation.

HT: Yeah, she wrote her, she says... it was a small school and she was valedictorian and she wrote her poem, and she wrote a story and she was rehearsing it and rehearsing it. And the sheriff came by and since the graduation's always held outside and there was a, what do you call it, you can't go out before sundown.

MA: Curfew.

HT: Curfew. That's... I couldn't think of the word. Anyway, so the neighbors said, "We'll take her." "No," he said, "there's war hysteria right now, you could be shot and I cannot take that," the sheriff said. So, so another boy read her, read her speech. She was very sad about it, but she was a smart kid. So, but, it was just one of those things that, you just never know how people would react. There was nothing that, nobody came and did anything bad to our house or anything in that time. Grapes of Wrath, I was trying to think of... have you ever read the story, Grapes of Wrath? That reminded me of when all these people came. That reminded me of that. 'Cause they were all coming by to do that. I know, I'm almost positive who took everything because were living so close.

MA: And they would come and wait...

HT; Yeah, they would come and take it. But how did they carry that piano out, it was upright piano. It was my older sister played it and everything.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.