<Begin Segment 10>

JS: Now after the -- so you returned from San Jose to Salinas after the bombing took place.

MN: Yes, uh-huh, yes.

JS: What was it like living in Salinas now when this happened?

MN: Well, all of my friends, when next day, it was a Sunday, Pearl Harbor was a Sunday, Monday I went to school and all of my friends turned against me.

JS: Your friends, your...

MN: My classmates. All my classmates, they turned...

JS: Your Caucasian friends?

MN: Yes, Caucasian friends, yeah. Caucasian, my classmates. They turned against me, uh-huh.

JS: How did they express that, turning against you?

MN: Well, they called me everything you could think of, "dirty yellow Jap," and everything that you could think of, I guess.

JS: Before that time --

MN: No, they were all my best friends. I had a, I had a really dear friend, Velma Arnold. She was such a dear friend. I think, I think she was the only one that stood by me, but all the others, they just, they just, they didn't... they didn't like me after that.

JS: Did you experience any other type of animosity besides your classmates?

MN: No.

JS: Okay, nobody.

MN: Nobody.

JS: How about your store?

MN: No, I don't, I don't remember. I don't remember. They could have, they could have, no...

JS: Did anything happen to your family right after the Pearl Harbor happened?

MN: No, I don't think so. I don't think so.

JS: Did your, was your father...

MN: My father was, uh-huh... he, they took him, they took him away.

JS: "They," meaning who took him?

MN: The... I don't know, the, the police, the police or the FBI. I really don't know. I know two gentlemen came and took my father.

JS: When was, when did that happen?

MN: This was... must have been about latter part of December?

JS: Okay.

MN: Isn't that when they were all taken in? I really don't know.

JS: Did they just kind of storm into your house?

MN: Yes, uh-huh. Yes, uh-huh.

JS: Besides your father, did they take any other property with them?

MN: Oh, yes. They took everything they could put their hands on.

JS: Such as?

MN: Radio, camera, typewriter, suitcase, everything that you could, they could carry, they took everything.

JS: Was any of that returned?

MN: No, no.

JS: How, how long was your father gone?

MN: Well, my family had connection with the chief of police...

JS: In Salinas?

MN: Salinas, and so he was, he was able to come home right away.

JS: How long was he in custody?

MN: Probably a day or two.

JS: Did he ever tell your family anything about what happened while he was in custody?

MN: They could have, but I didn't...

JS: You didn't hear.

MN: I didn't, I didn't.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.