Densho Digital Archive - Henry Fukuhara Interview II (denshovh-fhenry-02-0016)

<Begin Segment 16>

MN: Now, I understand on December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor day, you were out for a ride with George Inagaki?

HF: Yes.

MN: When, how did you hear about Pearl Harbor? On the radio, on the car radio?

HF: Car radio.

MN: What did you do once you heard about that?

HF: Well, as soon as we heard about it, Joyce said, "We have to go back, go back home." And then we got the, we got in touch with JACL leaders that they had a meeting.

MN: Were you at this meeting also?

HF: No.

MN: When you started to hear that people were being picked up by the FBI, were you worried that your family would be picked up?

HF: Yeah, I was. But fortunately, my father wasn't picked up.

MN: When you heard that Japanese Americans on the West Coast had to go into camp, did you lose faith in America?

HF: What?

MN: When you heard that Japanese Americans had to go into camp, did you lose faith in America?

HF: No, I didn't lose faith. It's just about to face the war.

MN: How did you dispose of your property, and how did you decide what to bring?

HF: I just... the property was Marine Street in Santa Monica. A friend... the florist, I offered the place to them, and he said, "Yeah, I'll take care of it." So he did take care of it. And it so happened that he was a minister's son, and then the other place we had in Los Angeles, we were real fortunate where it went to, someone came from the east and bought the place in Los Angeles on Third Street and Fairfax. So...

MN: That was your father's store on Third Street and Fairfax.

HF: Well, it wasn't the father's store, it was our store.

MN: Your brothers were also helping out at that time.

HF: Yes.

MN: Okay. So somebody from the east bought that property.

HF: Yeah, somebody, I don't even remember who that was.

MN: And then a friend took care of your Marine Street property.

HF: Yes. But he reneged on it.

MN: Oh, what happened? So you lost the property?

HF: Huh?

MN: Did you lose the Marine property?

HF: No, we didn't lose the Marine property because we left it free and clear. When I say "free and clear," it was ours. All we had to do was pay taxes on it.