Densho Digital Archive - Tommy T. Kushi Interview (denshovh-ktommy-01-0011)

<Begin Segment 11>

RP: We're continuing our interview today with Tom Kushi. And Tom, we were just about ready to talk a little bit about Pearl Harbor. And what do you remember about December 7, 1941?

TK: We were at church in Florin. And well, I didn't go into the adult service, but, so we were in high school, we were finished, so we were outside playing basketball or something. And my cousin Al Tsukamoto, he came dashing up, he just ran into the church and says, "Hey, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor." As far as I know, after that, I guess they stopped the church, I guess, and everybody went home. That's as far as I know. After that we says, "Hey, what's going to happen to us?"

RP: So there was some concern on your part about, "What was going to happen to us?"

TK: Yeah, 'cause Florin, we're, I wouldn't say used to it, and get all this, what do you call that, racial prejudice. But so, and I was a senior already. So it wasn't too bad. Our senior group, Caucasians, we had all nice guys in the seniors. So if it was the class before, there would have been trouble, I think, 'cause there was a bunch of radical, I wouldn't say radical, but bunch of guys that were kind of prejudiced. But we didn't have no problem. And we used to eat lunch, not in the... we used to go down the street to this auto dealer, Mr. Beach, we used to eat lunch there, get a Coke or whatever. First thing he says is, "I don't want nobody in here to talk about the war." Said, "I don't want no problems," he says. He was real nice. 'Cause not only Japanese guys go, the Caucasian kids could go. And first thing he says, "Nobody talks about the war."

RP: Was that the case with high school, too? Were there teachers or principals who cautioned the students not to jump on your case or any of the Japanese kids?

TK: Well, like all the teachers I went to, they never mentioned one word about the war.

RP: So life just went on in high school as normal.

TK: Yeah. Only thing is we were just wondering, "Gee, what are they going to do?" So the principal, I guess afterwards, he says, "As long as you come on the bus, you could come to school." Of course at that time, there was no curfew or anything then. The war just broke out.

RP: Right.

TK: You just went as usual.

RP: And then life did change when the curfews came along?

TK: Well, when the --

RP: What about the restrictions and the effect that they had on your...

TK: Travel?

RP: On your travel.

TK: Yeah, well, nobody went out. 'Cause you can't go out after six, so we didn't go out after six.

RP: Really hampered your social life.

TK: Well, I was in high school, and what kind of social life is there in high school? Only thing is the basketball game. I lived in the town of Florin, so you could walk to the gymnasium or something, but that's about it.