<Begin Segment 13>

ET: On the day that Pearl Harbor, I thought, I couldn't believe it. I thought it's going to be either Orson Welles show or something, it was blasting away, and I could hear what it said. And then a fellow yelling at me. I was at the East Water Gate sketching a battleship. Said, "You know the war is going on." I said, "Who's fighting?" Said, "Well, Japan just dropped a bomb on Pearl Harbor." And he said, "Well, we don't know exactly what kind of the war it is, maybe we'll have a real war starting." He said, "Well, let's listen." So we were listening to it, and it didn't sound too good. So that's where I was.

HT: Radio.

ET: Yeah, radio.

HT: We didn't have television.

AD: What happened to that painting you were doing?

ET: You know, that's a good question. I took it to school the next day, and there was an FBI already there, confiscated it.

AD: Wait, say that again so that people know what you're talking about. Say, "I took the painting to school."

ET: Yeah, I took the painting to school, University of Washington, and there they were. People knew that I was sketching. Nothing happened after that, and they're the one that's got the painting. It wasn't much of a drawing. I loved sketching ships of all kinds.

AD: So tell us, I'm going to have you tell us that story one more time, kind of the short version. So tell us... think if you were telling it to a little kid and you said, "I was painting when I heard about Pearl Harbor, and then I took the painting and it was confiscated."

ET: Yeah. That's precisely what happened. I think I'm not the only one that activities were... they thought it was kind of strange having somebody sketching and Pearl Harbor was bombed. They saw some connection maybe. I don't think it was a battleship. It could be that it was a military or navy ship of some kind. But the sailor was extremely friendly, he was just kind of kidding me right at the beginning, and I didn't believe him that all these problems.

AD: So tell us... do you think you can say it like I'm saying it? So you can just repeated it in sort of a short story form. Saying, "When Pearl Harbor happened, I was painting."

ET: Okay, the Pearl Harbor was, of course, was in the air, the radio broadcasting. And seems like this particular thing was right at the site, that's coming from Pearl Harbor. And then I wasn't even thinking about anything, and that afternoon, I had to see my friend. So he was also listening to the radio, too. And the next day, I thought I'd better take all that to school. I don't know what made me do that, but I took it to school, which is a good thing because when I took it, there was a gentleman waiting for me to show him the sketch.

AD: Interesting.

ET: Yeah. It was kind of a... come to think of it, I don't think I was ever suspected as a spy or anything. The only thing was they could have made any kind of story out of it, but nothing came out in the paper. There were a few people arrested, but I was not arrested. My father, if he wasn't sick, he should be arrested. My uncle was. They came and got him that night.

HT: I think my dad would have been, too, if he wasn't sick. Because he had dynamites and caps, you know, we were on a farm. We had dynamite, caps, and things like that in our warehouse. Minute we heard Pearl Harbor, first thing we said was, "Hey, let's get rid of the dynamites." We got hold of the caps and threw it out in the garbage out in the woods. But the rest of it was still there. And the FBI came and says... we said, "We got rid of it." And he said, "Where'd you get rid of it?" Says, "Threw it out there, the caps." But my dad was sick, so nothing happened. Yeah, nothing happened. The dynamite was right there because we had to blast, Dad had to blast a lot, it's farm. So he had all that. So his dad would be in for another different kind of a thing maybe, whereas mine would be for holding, having dynamite and things like that. We didn't have any guns or anything like that. Only thing I know is that when Pearl Harbor started, they attacked Pearl Harbor, our friends were on leave at the time. He was in the army, and he was on leave, the Miyoshis. And all I know is that he got phone calls saying they had to go back. I don't know what happened. Because like my brother was 1-A but they reclassified him to, what, 4-C?

ET: 4-C.

HT: 4-C, yeah. Right away they reclassified.

ET: 4-C is the "enemy alien." So we were citizens to "enemy aliens."

AD: And tell me very briefly, Ed, when you came back from Japan, that was pre-Pearl Harbor, is that right?

ET: Oh, yeah, 1936, so five years before.

AD: Can you explain how you were treated when you came back?

ET: Okay, it could be some relationship with what happened to me, I don't know. But I was locked up in immigration, and it was exactly the same as jail. It's a crying shame. I always maintain that we have a great country, only thing is we just don't treat immigrants, we just treat 'em like a prisoner. And I didn't understand that, and here I am a citizen of the United States, I was the same boat, they just... so around that time there was some ill-feeling between the two countries, the federal government and political situation was bad. Maybe that's why I was in immigration. It was four days, but then that seems like a long time. And I remember the guy that was helping me, was an interpreter, but I spoke better English than he did. [Laughs] It was kind of funny, why he was... he reminded me of... you know who Sidney Greenfield is, a comedian? And kind of a miniaturized Sydney Greenfield, Panama hat, white suit, everything, white shoes, and smoked great big cigar. He was a little guy, about five foot tall. And, oh, gosh, he was obnoxious. This is Japanese from Japan.

Off camera: Would you describe that situation again? I remember when I was talking to you last year, you talked about, I don't remember how old you were, but could you just describe that situation in a nutshell again?

ET: I was fifteen years old at the time. And there was no doubt about it, all the documentation says I'm a citizen of the United States, and my dad was in the business, and fairly well-known. And about the third day, I just couldn't stand it because I was in with quite a number of Chinese. I think it was about eight of 'em, and they were in twenty-five to forty-five and that age area. And I was fifteen years old, and I felt very uncomfortable in that. And it's absolutely I have never been in places like that. Right in the middle of the room was the toilet. You have to go to the toilet if you have to, right in front of everybody else. And you're treated like a prisoner. To do that to fifteen years old, to me, it was a cruel thing to do. So I told the guy, said, "Why don't you just forget the whole thing? Send me back, send me back to Japan." Anything could be better than this. And it was a bad situation. So I would never let go, I made a criticism of that immigration. Since then, immigration got a little better.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.