<Begin Segment 7>

KL: What are your recollections of December 7, 1941?

WI: The uncle I was talking about, he had just graduated high school, and he was courting my aunt-to-be. So that Sunday, he offered to babysit me by taking me with them down to Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is, I think, roughly about seventy miles south of San Francisco, and it's a beach city. And at Santa Cruz they also had their Playland, you know, the roller coaster and the concessions and all. So we started out early in the morning, drove down to Santa Cruz, spent a few hours riding the concessions and the rides and this and that. And then we retired to the beach, spread out the blanket, my aunt made a real nice picnic basket and we just sort of lounged around. And, of course, my uncle's courting my aunt. So I was off to the side with my sand bucket and all. It started to get a little cool, and so, "Let's back up and get back to San Francisco."

So we got in the car, and as we approached the San Francisco city limits, they had MPs stopping all the cars checking ID. And only if you were a resident that you were allowed to proceed. So we still didn't have any idea of what was going on, you know. So we went in the city and then we saw the newsboys, "Extra, extra," and whatever, and when we finally got home, my mother was beside herself because that was before cell phones and whatever, so she had no idea where we were. And, of course, the announcement of Pearl Harbor hit the community extremely hard. And the grandparents and our uncles, we were all assembled at our home, and, "Gee, what's going on?" and told us about Pearl Harbor and whatever. They kept saying the word "war," and the newspaper headlines said, "War." And I said, "Gee, what's war?" "What's war?" to the mailman. [Laughs] And, of course, I soon found out.

KL: So it was, do you think it was, I mean, you were a little kid and it sounds like it was shocking and curious for you, but what about... and you said your mom was frantic. Do you remember the tone of that conversation at your house or people gathered? What did you sense?

WI: Well, it was extreme because being away, she was so worried. And then, of course, my grandparents had immigrated from Japan, and my father, all the bombing and everything is right there in Hawaii where he was born and all that. So I guess the overall feeling generated, because Japantown was all sort of up in arms and upset and whatever. But the not knowing exactly what this really meant, I mean, we knew it was a horrendous thing. And then, of course, Japan being the homeland, we really didn't know what to expect.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.