Densho Digital Archive - John Young Interview (denshovh-yjohn-01-0012)

<Begin Segment 12>

RM: Do you remember when the Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor? Do you remember what that day was like?

JY: Oh, yes, yes. But it didn't bother us that much because we were more Americanized than Chinese and Japanese.

RM: What were you doing on that day? Can you describe the day to us?

JY: I don't know. Didn't think anything of it, it wasn't a big thing. It was a big thing, but...

RM: Did you notice your community change after the attack?

JY: Yeah, when they were all taken to Manzanar, yeah.

RM: When did you and Kay get married?

JY: February the 14th, 1942, we got married. She died February the 12th, 2006, two days shy of sixty-four years. We got along great. She wouldn't argue with me, she would walk away and give me the silent treatment, that's the way she was.

RM: Do you remember, was she impacted -- so on February 19, 1942, only five days after you got married, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, and there were a lot of changes, curfews and different... you couldn't go more than five miles from where you lived. Do you remember your wife being impacted by those, the curfew or anything?

JY: No, it didn't bother us. We just went in where we wanted to go, that's all, went to the beach or anything. No, that didn't affect us at all.

RM: Where were you living at the time?

JY: I was living with my brother-in-law up in Solano off of Broadway.

RM: What do you remember about learning that Japanese Americans had to leave Los Angeles?

JY: Well, I was sad because my mother-in-law had the hotel and all that, the livelihood. I was really affected by it. And they had to go to camp and they had to give all the radios and things like that away, can't have any radio. And the furniture, I took some linoleum from them and linoleum my parents house, they lost everything. They were so sad about it, all that furniture.

RM: What camp did Kay's parents go to?

JY: Well, first they went to Santa Anita, lived in the horse barns. Then from there they went to Manzanar. I didn't go in with them at first, she had to go in. But there was a few Japanese girls that stayed out and married Chinese. In fact, a good friend of mine, I worked on the produce, and this guy married a Japanese girl and he kept her out, they just stayed out.

RM: What do you remember about making the decision to join your wife?

JY: Well, I was in love with her, and I was making good money at that time. I was making about thirty-five dollars a week as a truck driver, delivering produce to a fruit stand and all that, out in Beverly Hills and all over. And I had to give that up. I gave it to my brother-in-law to do, I went into the camp and started making sixteen dollars as a carpenter a month. But we had nothing to lose, we were so young and didn't have much.