<Begin Segment 3>

JA: Do you remember -- how old were you when, in '41?

GI: Twenty-one.

JA: So you probably have memories of December 7th.

GI: Well, I have a very good memory of what happened at that time and I know that I had gone to volunteer for the army. At that time, my brother was home from the army when the war broke out, and he was called back to go back to, I believe it was Camp Roberts in California. And I went to volunteer and they turned me down and, because they said, well, they didn't have to tell me, but they just didn't want any "Japs," and that didn't bother me because we looked like the enemy anyway, so that was one of the things that always stood in the back of my mind. And it didn't bother me, though, because I, I always tried my best to be a good, good American, and tried to prove to the American people that I was a good, good enough citizen for them, or better than they were. I always had that, I always had that in the back of my mind. So, I just kept on going, and I was able to succeed in life.

JA: What did you and your family feel when you heard about Pearl Harbor?

GI: Well, that's, that's a really hard question because I really don't know what I felt. Because I felt prejudice long before that, way before that, so I really don't, I really can't say what kind of feeling I had. Even when I was going to high school I thought that there was one schoolteacher that was prejudiced against Japanese Americans because I took cooking and baking in high school and I tried my best -- I always tried to do whatever I can to the best I can. And while I was cooking and baking they had a contest to see who, who can go into the city finals for baking. I tried my best and I thought I would be one of the honorees, but they turned me down and gave it to a Caucasian boy, and I felt that I should have been there, but then because of being Japanese American, I wasn't, I wasn't chosen. But that didn't bother me. But I, from there I, I put more concentration into cabinet making and woodwork, and there I got a citation for being one of the, one of the better cabinet makers in school.

JA: How, how did your father feel, you think, when he learned that his native country had attacked the country he was now living in?

GI: Well -- and I never did ask him -- but I'm pretty sure that he knew it was eventually going to come to that. And maybe I shouldn't even tell you all this, but my dad, and I'm sure a lot of Isseis during, before the war, they used to collect all the twine and all the, what, the cigarette...

JA: Tinfoil?

GI: Tinfoil. He used to collect all that and put it in a bunch and whatever and he would collect all that and ship all that to Japan. I'm sure he wasn't the only one, there was quite a few others that did the same thing. Well, they all... I don't blame them because they all felt that Japan needed help and they did everything they can to help Japan. Not in a war sense, though.

JA: Right. Did anything change for you or your family after Pearl Harbor? Immediately after?

GI: Well, nothing really changed. What do you mean by the family, though?

JA: Well, we're all -- were you living at home with your family?

GI: Oh, yes. All of us were at home.

JA: I meant did people [noise outside] -- we have an airplane -- I was wondering if, if Caucasian people looked at you any differently than they had before Pearl Harbor or were things pretty much the same?

GI: Well, the so-called rednecks, they always looked at us as the Japs anyway, it didn't make any difference whether the war came or not. They were, they were dead-set against the Japanese Americans or Japanese, the Issei that were already here in this country. That prejudice was always there, but you know, we couldn't let it bother us.

JA: Right.

GI: It didn't bother me.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2002 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.