<Begin Segment 9>

LP: All right, we're back on tape two after a brief break. And we were just talking about the treatment that you received after Pearl Harbor, going back to school and the principal seeming aloof and to not be too concerned. Were the teachers or your peers, besides the principal, did they react any differently?

EY: Yeah. I don't know whether it was us or what, but you could feel the tension. Somehow, you know, without even talking about it, I know that the persons that I thought were friends avoided me, that's when I really felt it. I wanted to go up there and ask, "How come? I'm still the same person." But it could be something they discussed at home. Because to me, to this day, I think the way young people really act, they say, discriminate the other people is something that they heard the parents talk about, not necessarily pounding it into their brain, but the fact that they discussed it at the table. Although when you read about this young man who killed many people in the theater, remember, now they're saying he had a mental problem. So my statement saying that it stems from parents, that's not true when you read about that. So anyway, at that time, because the students who I thought were friends kind of shied away, that told me differently. And in a way it was kind of said that they acted the way they did, 'cause I wanted to tell them, "I'm still the same person." But the teachers didn't say a word, not one.

Although now that we do go around talking to different schools, some of the friends that I have who don't do what I do, they tell me that talking about it doesn't necessarily tell myself that it was okay, and that they would rather not be, share their experience, so I respect that. But I think Jim and I think that if we don't talk about it, people will not know. And I think the young people should know that the government has this capability of saying that and it'll take effect, and not take your freedom so casually. That's my feeling.

LP: Were there any Italians or German, like, immigrants or first generation from those groups in your area at that time? I was just curious if these other groups that had been potentially concerned about being discriminated against or what would happen to them if you remember encountering any of those?

EY: Not in my situation, because it was such a small community. And I don't know that even if they had associations where they wanted to get to know one another, in that aspect, I have no idea.

LP: Did any of your friends or family experience any of the FBI arrest stuff? I know some people that had...

EY: No, I don't think so. I think ours was kind of a different setup from the other, it wasn't like this open... because we were kind of in a nucleus there. They knew that, they call them... not "Jap camp," but referring to "Jap" something or other. The parents worked for Mr. Weyerhaeuser and we were housed there kind of a thing, and I think there was just kind of a given thing, and let's leave them alone, kind of stuff, I think. At the time, growing up, I didn't know any different.

LP: Did the Weyerhaeuser company, did they react in any particular way with that news?

EY: You know, I never did find out. It would be interesting to pursue that, but I'm sure by now Mr. Weyerhaeuser is gone. But it would have been nice to find out how they felt at the time.

LP: Especially with the operation, you're saying so many people were employed by them that had Japanese ancestry, I'm sure to him it would have been shocking on an emotional level.

EY: I would think so.

LP: But also his company's as being affected. So what, from the time that news was delivered, from December 7th up into the 9066 posters and all of that, what was that time period like? Could you describe what you recall about that?

EY: Well, I know that we didn't go to school because it was outside the five mile radius. And I don't think we went anywhere. I look back and I wondered, where did we get the food to eat? Because we didn't have any grocery stores, how did we manage that? Because December 7th, and then we were evacuated in May of '42. So there had to be something between December, January, February, March, April, May, at least a four-month period, but I can't recall that.

LP: So for the four months you didn't go to school, you stayed home?

EY: Yeah.

LP: And what did you do at home? Were you just doing chores?

EY: Well, I guess I really, can't really remember what I really did, but once we got the notice that we had to evacuate, well, of course, we had to go through and decide what we're going to take, what we were going to leave behind. So that kept us going and they kept me going. But like I tell people, in my situation, I only had one skirt, and I only had a couple of blouses which I wore to school and then I washed and wore the same thing over and over again. So then we'd talk about shoes, I only had two pairs of shoes, one to go to school with and one just in case something nice was going on or going to a theater, wear the good shoes. But my father always made sure that he got the tire, old rubber tire, and then he would make a shape of my shoe and then he'd cut it out and then put it up to my new shoe. And once that wore out, then I'd have my new soles from the already made shoes, then if there was a hole in the sole of my shoe, and put a cardboard inside, and somehow we managed, and that's how we lived. So my brother, same thing, his shoes, my father cut it out and pounded it. He had a stand, the shape of the show, and used that every time we got a new shoe and made sure it lasted a whole year. So we managed that way.

LP: Do you remember your siblings' reaction in this time to that news or what they did?

EY: No idea. My brother was six years younger than me at that time, so it would be... I was fifteen when I went to camp, so six years, he'd be nine years old then. I don't remember that.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.