<Begin Segment 8>

KL: And you think your parents would have...

MT: Yes. They... I can't remember them talking about it, but I'm sure that, I know my mother did become a citizen. My father died... oh, he wasn't able to. My father died in 1945.

KL: Oh, wow.

MT: Of tetanus. He was working at a nursery in Chicago, outskirt of Chicago, and was sawing wood and buzz sawed his finger, his hand, and they failed to give him, the greenhouse work was with manure, and so he got tetanus. I think the doctor was negligent in not giving him a tetanus shot, the hospital, and he died three weeks later, a very painful death. And so that was 1945, so when my mother was able to, she did take out citizenship.

MJT: Because you had to realize that they, that was the only country they, basically they came when they were young, and by the time that, 1952, well, they've been a part of this country for over half a century if not more. They had no more allegiance to Japan and such. But they took... since the war, and a lot of inputting together to pass, to provide that right. It was not only for the Japanese, but all Asia -- it was Chinese, Indians, as well. It was inclusive of many people.

KL: And your parents wanted you close after the Pearl Harbor attack? So you came back to near home?

MJT: Yeah. So as soon as I got back after Christmas vacation, the rumors began that they were going to evacuate. There were people who wanted all Japanese to "go back home," quote/unquote. And so we said, "This is our home." Said, well that was always, you know, that you're here and so on. But... see, you were asking?

KL: Oh, I just wanted, I wanted to hear about, your parents wanted you close after the attack, and I wanted to hear about what your parents' response to the Pearl Harbor attack and then to the rumors and to the threats of being removed. How did your folks respond to, say, between December of '41 and March of '42?

MT: Well, the papers did tell us that things were going to be happening. So they're Japanese people are accepting of orders, especially when the government issues them. So I think we just listened and, for everything to fall into whatever it was going to fall into. And they obeyed, they didn't feel that they were guilty of anything, so we went, just followed whatever the government said.

KL: Was your sister still at home, or was she at Drake already?

MT: No, no. She relocated to Drake. She was a student in UCLA and got, I think she had two years' work at UCLA when the war happened.

KL: Were your parents worried, I know people were being picked up, other men were being picked up by the FBI?

MT: They didn't feel, my father didn't feel that he would be picked up, because any of the organizations he belonged to were to do with flowers and the church, and he didn't feel, I don't think he felt threatened to be picked up at all.

KL: What flower organizations was he part of?

MT: It was the Los Angeles wholesale flower market.

KL: Did he have an office in that, or was it all membership?

MT: Oh, he probably was, held an office in it, because he was so prominent. I remember going to flower shows and he was, had things to do for it. He was very active.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2012 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.