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KL: This is Kristen Luetkemeier, we are here at Video Resources Incorporated in Santa Ana with Joyce Okazaki to finish up an interview that we started some time ago, a year or a year and a half ago. Today is December 2, 2013, and Whitney Peterson, also of Manzanar National Historic Site, is operating the camera today, and Jeff Rudd from Video Resources may come and go. And Joyce, I just want to confirm that we have your permission to continue this interview and record it.

JO: Yes, you do.

KL: Make it available to the public?

JO: Yes.

KL: Okay, great, thank you. I'm glad we're finally making this work to finish up.

JO: Because it's been a long time.

KL: Uh-huh, yeah, it's been a while. We talked a lot last time about your sort of family background and your parents' experiences and a little bit of your younger life in Southern California. And I think I just want to pick up the thread with asking you what you recall about the day that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. I know you have some memories and I wonder if you could share with us what your recollection of that day is.

JO: Well, I didn't know anything about... because there was no talk about the actual attack. We were as a family having dinner in Little Tokyo in a Chinese restaurant celebrating my grandfather's birthday. And I don't know why we were doing it on December 7th when his birthday was October the 4th or something like that. It was in October anyway. But he was a very busy man with his store, and so this was, I guess, the time he had set aside so we could all get together and celebrate his birthday. And when he got home, my mother received a phone call that he was arrested, the FBI were waiting on the doorstep of his home, and he was taken. I guess he could take a few things with him, but I understand he was taken to San Pedro federal prison. And it could have been on Terminal Island, I really don't know for sure. Mainly because I tried to get his records, and so far I have not been able to find any information on him from the time he was arrested until the time he was released and sent to Manzanar. So he was taken on December 7th, and we didn't know where he went. And I guess a day or two later, my aunt, his older daughter, my mother's younger sister found out where he was, and they eventually went to Fort Missoula, Montana, and spent the time there until he was released, which was in June of 1942, went to Manzanar, they brought him to Manzanar.

KL: Who made that phone call to your mom? Was it your grandmother?

JO: Probably my grandmother. Well, there were two other... actually, there were three... my grandparents lived in a huge home, it was one of those mansions on Twenty-seventh Street and Seventh Street (near) Adams (Blvd), and so even though the daughters got married, they lived there. Two daughters were married... no, they were not married yet. They got married after. That's right, the chronology is a little different. There were four daughter still living there, one of them was my aunt, the doctor, and the other three were sisters, and then one uncle. So they were all still living in that house.

KL: Were they all at a dinner with you too that day?

JO: Yes, they were all at dinner. It was a whole family dinner, and I guess that's one of the reasons why it was so late, because everybody was every which way. And I think my aunt who was the doctor just came, returned from her internship in Indiana.

KL: Oh, I didn't realize she had done an internship in Indiana. Do you know why Indiana?

JO: I don't know.

KL: Oh, that's interesting.

JO: I do have her interviews and things, but I never really asked her that question. But she was in Indiana, and my other aunt, who was also older, drove out to Indiana and picked her up, and they both drove back.

KL: And that was late in '42?

JO: Yeah, late in '42. It was probably late in October, whenever her internship was finished. And then she went to work, I guess, for the County General.

KL: When your mom got that phone call, do you recall anything about her response?

JO: No, she just...

KL: Was she calm?

JO: Well, I think she was a little excited, but I really... I was only a kid. I was like seven years old.

KL: Did she tell you about it? Were you aware of what was going on at that time?

JO: Well, I don't think she told me directly, she just told all of us my grandfather Jiichan was arrested by the FBI, and we all got, like I would get really concerned, "What happened?" So that's what happened.

KL: Do you know if she learned news of the attack at the same time, or did you guys have any clue what prompted that arrest?

JO: Well, they probably knew of the attack, but they didn't tell us. I mean, they figured we're too young. Well, my sister definitely, but you know, I didn't really know anything about it until Jiichan was arrested. We called him Jiichan, he was my grandpa.

KL: And then when and how did you find out, or your family found out that he was in the prison at San Pedro?

JO: Well, I think my aunt, the doctor aunt, she was the one that really took care of everything at the house, and so she probably called wherever, whoever, they must have told them something, I don't really know. And asking her now, or even five years ago or so, it was impossible to get any kind of a story about what happened to my grandfather from her. It was always what she did and how she did it. And she takes full credit for everything. But she, of course, married subsequently after December 7th, she married Dr. James Goto.

KL: But she was, Masako, before that time she was not --

JO: Yeah, Dr. Masako Kusayanagi. Just for a short while. She got her degree in 1940, and then a one-year internship in '40 to '41. And apparently she was, she got a job at the County General.

KL: Yeah, I'm sorry, I made a mistake on the date earlier, saying '42, this is the end of '41.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.