<Begin Segment 6>

RM: So did your mom talk about what she was doing when she found out that Pearl Harbor had been attacked by Japan?

PS: You know, she never said anything to me about that. She never said she was surprised, or she never said how she felt that day. I know how my stepfather felt, but she never said anything.

RM: Did she ever talk about what happened around her community, if anyone she knew had been arrested by the FBI after that, or if there was any disruption?

PS: She never mentioned that. All she does tell me is when they're leaving, and that they have to pack up.

RM: So I guess let's step forward to that, and Executive Order 9066 is signed on February 19th. When did your mom find out what was going to happen to her as a result of that?

PS: You mean to go to Manzanar? I think she just did what her family was going to do, she had to rely on her brothers and sister, her brother and her sisters, what they were going to do. Because that's how she traveled, was with all of them, and her mother.

RM: You mentioned before this interview started that your mom's family was already friends with the Kunitomi family. Could you talk a little bit about how that relationship came to be...

PS: Well, that was Hide and Frank, Frank Kunitomi, the one that used to come over and hold her hand. My mom said he was crazy about her, and she said, "Hide could care less about him." And then her other sister, she used to say, "You should be nicer to him."

RM: Did the Kunitomis live very close by?

PS: I think the Kunitomis had a jewelry store in Japanese town, so they had to live somewhere in that area. I don't remember exactly where they lived.

RM: Do you know how Hide and Frank met?

PS: No, all I know is he was at the house a lot.

RM: And did your mom know Sue?

PS: Yeah.

RM: Before the war?

PS: Sueko? Yeah.

RM: Yeah, I know, we always say Sue Kunitomi at Manzanar, and you always say Sueko.

PS: I always remember her as Sueko, 'cause that's what my mother called her.

RM: Yeah. And so were they friends before the war?

PS: Yeah, she was a year older than my mom. So, yeah, my mom knew her. Because her brother, Frank, was the eldest of that family. But that's all my mom says is that... I think that's why she stayed friends with Sueko all those years, is because she could empathize with her in going to camp and everything. Except Sueko left right away, didn't she, from camp?

RM: Yeah, pretty soon, like a year, a little over a year later.

PS: Yeah, 'cause my mom's sisters did, too. And then she was left alone in the camp.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.