Densho Digital Archive - Emi Yamamoto Interview (denshovh-yemi-01-0011)

<Begin Segment 11>

MA: So I wanted to talk about Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, and what you remember of that day, and hearing of the news that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor.

EY: That was really sad. I was, that was, it was... Japan was kind of like that. We didn't know whether it's gonna be a war or any things like that. So we're, we had, I was gonna put the bushberry by the La Selva Beach with... she's Mrs. Hashimoto... her husband, his mother, the family...

MA: The Hashimoto family?

EY: Hashimoto family, the boy. Anyway, Mr. Takatsugi, that's Shoko's, he's the one, the main person that taught me how to drive like I told you.

MA: The foreman.

EY: Uh-huh. Well, her husband's, the family was close to the foreman, real close.

MA: So the Hashimoto family and the foreman were close.

EY: Uh-huh. And so, and he was gonna, we was gonna raise the bushberry together where, the new place where we rented, we were getting ready to put a bushberry in because everything was on the edge. We didn't know whether, what's gonna happen. And so... but I, we decided that we didn't know what's gonna happen, so I contracted with the seed company, be just a one-year deal. So we're gonna start planting some parsley for the seed. And before we know it, it was all went to, fall apart to the evacuation. So that's when everything closed up.

MA: So how did you hear about Pearl Harbor?

EY: Well, since we were, where we were gonna put bushberry, and we didn't know, it looks kind of wobbly with what's gonna happen. So I, we contract, that we contracted a seed company, so we just put parsley in for the seed, seed on that year, for that year, instead of waiting for putting, instead of putting bushberry or something in, won't produce or anything, it was scary. And then before we know it, Pearl Harbor came and everything fell apart.

MA: And how did your parents react to the news about Pearl Harbor? How did they feel?

EY: They didn't know this was gonna happen. Took them, a big surprise. And we were, everybody was, didn't know what to do, where to go or what happened.