<Begin Segment 9>

RP: Tell us about December 7, 1941. You had just returned from Japan? How soon before the war broke out did you come back?

FY: I would say about two years later.

RP: Was it two years?

FY: Uh-huh.

RP: So seeing what you saw in Japan, in your mind, was it inevitable that there was gonna be a war between...

FY: Yes.

RP: And what do you recall about that day when Pearl Harbor was bombed?

FY: Oh, we felt terrible. It was disastrous.

RP: Any other feelings that you had?

FY: Fear. I would say we didn't know what's going to happen to us, because there was prejudice already.

RP: Now, just after Pearl Harbor, Issei community leaders were being rounded up by the FBI, and your mother was a Japanese language school instructor. Were you visited by the FBI, was she taken?

FY: No, she was not. Just the community heads were taken. Like Mr. Itano, he was one of the leaders of the community, and he was taken. And we were fearful at that time.

RP: Did you think your mother might be taken?

FY: No, I don't think so.

RP: Were there other, do you recall Buddhist priests and other members of maybe the Japanese Association that went, too?

FY: Let's see. I can't recall if the Buddhist priests were arrested, too. But if you were a prominent person in the Japanese community, you were taken.

RP: But your house was, you don't recall your house being searched or being visited at all?

FY: No, uh-uh.

RP: But it further sort of enhanced this fearful atmosphere, "What's going to happen next?"

FY: Uh-huh. We had a curfew.

RP: Did that affect your social life in any way?

FY: No, it didn't. We were very careful.

RP: There were also restrictions on, certain contraband had to be turned in.

FY: Oh, that's right. Oh, yes. I remember I was taking archery at college, and I just destroyed that 'cause I didn't want them to think that that was a contraband.

RP: Did you or your family have to burn other items like you were just mentioning? Were there pictures of the emperor?

FY: Oh, that's right. My mother used to read Japanese magazines, and they were very careful about not having a picture of the emperor or anything like that.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.