Densho Digital Archive - Susumu Iwasaki Interview (denshovh-isusumu

<Begin Segment 12>

RP: Can you tell us how you heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941?

SI: How did I find out?

RP: Yeah.

SI: I think we were going to school or someplace. Where... in fact, I can remember I was in, at the ferry landing when I heard about it. And then of course we couldn't go, we couldn't leave the island after that. So...

RP: Do you remember soldiers patrolling the island after December 7th?

SI: Not really. No, there was no soldier. I don't think there was ever any soldier patrolling the area.

RP: Do you remember how your family felt about what was gonna happen to you?

SI: Well, not really. I mean, it was... we were, some talk about why Japan bombed Pearl Harbor -- 'cause you what, I was only fourteen years old there then. To me it didn't seem real, but it was nothing to talk about.

RP: There were many Issei fishermen and other community leaders who were taken by the FBI.

SI: All of 'em. All of 'em. The only people that they didn't, they didn't take was like my dad and a few of the businesspeople, they didn't take. All the fishermen was all, they were all taken away. And I think most of 'em went to Santa Fe, New Mexico. But my dad, when we went to... evacuated from Terminal Island, went to the hostel, that's when they came and took my dad. And then from there he was in Tujunga, detention camp over there. And from there he went to Bismarck, North Dakota. And from there he went to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Then he came back to camp.

RP: How long was it between the time your dad was taken from the hostel and when you saw him at Manzanar again?

SI: I really can't tell you exact time or, or month, or when he came back to camp. But eventually he was telling us... that he was saying Santa Fe, New Mexico and then came to Manzanar.

RP: Why do you think he was taken by the FBI?

SI: Taken? To this day, I don't think he ever knew why he was taken because, he was there way before. Like 19'... early 1900, I guess. Because my first brother was born in 1924. So...

RP: Was he involved in any other community activities?

SI: No.

RP: No. Just a barber?

SI: Just a barber.

RP: Who knows?

SI: What?

RP: Who knows.

SI: Yeah.

RP: Do you remember the day that he was taken away? Were you there?

SI: Well, the time they came after him was, let's see, we were in... no, not really. Because all I can remember was in the first part of April we were... pack our stuff and went to Manzanar. That was, I think either around the first or the second or, you know, of April.

RP: And he was taken just before you left for Manzanar?

SI: Pardon? Oh yeah, yeah, right.

RP: Uh-huh. You said he was sent to Tujunga?

SI: Tujunga, yeah.

RP: Did you have... there were many, many families who told me that they were able to go visit their father for a short time.

SI: That I don't know.

RP: You don't know if you...

SI: You know, like I said before, there's nobody used to have a car. So, it was almost impossible for anybody to, you know, if their parents are... unless they ask a friend or somebody that used to, had a car. But nobody on Terminal... mostly, I would say like I can only count on my one hand the people that used to have a car. They, I remember Charlie used to have a car.

RP: Hamasaki.

SI: Yeah. Well, see, he actually, became my cousin. He married my mother's cousin from Japan.

RP: Right. Your mother's parents were also at Terminal Island. Did they stay there? Were they there during, when the war broke out? The Yoshidas?

SI: Yeah. What do you mean they stayed?

RP: They were there when the war broke out?

SI: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

RP They didn't go back to Japan.

SI: Right. They were all, they were about to go to Japan but the war started and they couldn't go. So...

RP: And where did they end up? Did they go with you?

SI: Same. Manzanar, yeah.

RP: They went to Manzanar.

SI: Yeah.

RP: Did they end up at the hostel, too?

SI: Yeah. Yeah, they all... we all went over there and from there we went to camp. And they were in Block, if I can remember, they were in Block 11. Why 11? But there was, part of the Block 11 group was from Terminal Island. And then mostly from 9, 10, and part of 11.