<Begin Segment 11>

TI: So let's talk about, sort of, with the war starting, what were you doing when you heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

SK: I can't remember exactly what I was doing. It was December 7th. But we thought my being an American citizen, that they won't take us. They would take all, just the non-citizens. So we were making preparations to stay there. And me, and my sister want to help me to run the place, but after I got -- and then later on, they said, "No, everybody gotta go."

TI: Now, before we go there, I'm curious, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, did you ever have a conversation with your father about, about the bombing and Japan's attack of America and what he thought about that?

SK: Well, he says, "Japan," he says, "politically, they knew they're not gonna win. They knew," he says, "you can't win against the United States. But their philosophy was" -- they think, he didn't -- "if we bomb Pearl Harbor, maybe United States won't come this far." They'll knock out the major battleship and everything, that maybe United States and Japan could get to hold their own position. Because that's what Japanese philosophy was. Fighting is wrong, but you have to do first what they don't expect. So that's why they do it. But he was always saying, "Eventually, United States is going to win." There's no way.

TI: So right away, he said Japan was, was not going to win this war.

SK: So he said, "You gotta figure on living here." 'Cause when we went to camp, we could have signed the, what they called the "yes-yes," "no-no" stuff. Says, "You gotta stay here because there's no future in Japan."

TI: So he counseled you or advised you to go "yes-yes" on the "loyalty questionnaire."

SK: It said, put "yes," but I won't volunteer. If they draft me, go.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL. All Rights Reserved.