<Begin Segment 9>

RP: December 7, 1941, what are your recollections of that day?

FH: I was in the floral shop cleaning flowers, getting ready. And we heard this on the radio. We had the radio on. It's almost unbelievable. My, my question was, "Why?" But then my thinking was... I mean, as a teenager, how much do you think of that kind of thing? Unless you're into that, really into it. And how many kids were into that? I couldn't believe it. And we had a Chinese restaurant next door, and he was in the reserve. Actually, he was a San Diego boy. And he had this Chinese restaurant, and he said, "I'm joining up tomorrow," which would be Monday. Or signing up, whatever. And he did, but he called me not too long ago to tell me, you know, he's still around and how are you, blah, blah, blah. It was kinda nice. But at that time it was, I've never been in a war, so I don't, didn't know what to expect. 'Til I went to school Monday.

RP: What was that like?

FH: They made everybody in school go to this, the football bleacher and listen to Roosevelt declare war on Japan. It was the most embarrassing, horrifying thing. I mean, there's a bunch of us and we're all sticking, all the Japanese kids are sitting together, and everybody's out there rahing, hooing, cheering on. And we don't know what to think. We're American citizens, and yet who they claim our country is bombarded, because actually that's the only way they see us. That's why we went into camp, because we're Asians. I mean, Japanese. That was the worst part of it, but other than that it wasn't bad. I mean, the one that understood understood. That one that didn't... they were going to war and they signed up. And there's one kid that I remember, he used to eat -- his name was Albert Otto -- and he ate lunch with us, and he came back one day and he said to me, "I signed up at the Navy, San Diego. What a beautiful country." I said, "Oh, gee, I wonder what San Diego is like," and here I live in San Diego most of my life. So there was a lot of, lot of guys that, in my class, that signed up to go to war, and I hated to see, hear that. But that's what war does, I guess. Sad as it may be. And how many more have gone on since then?

KP: Can I just, do you know of any of the, your Japanese American friends who wanted to sign up and couldn't? Did you hear anything about that?

FH: No. No, I don't know. And if I do I can't remember. Or if I did, I just can't remember. No, I can't remember. There weren't a lot of Japanese guys that I knew that... I think they were kinda embarrassed that their friends were against them when war broke out. Maybe they felt that their true color came out, but there was a lot of us that stuck by, our friends that stuck by us, too.

RP: Caucasian friends?

FH: Caucasian friends that said, "We know what it's like." I mean, not, they don't know what it's like, but they sympathized that we were, like, how would you put it? We were feeling like prisoners without bars.

RP: So did that, did that feeling exist beyond school into the community?

FH: You mean just, is that the feeling...

RP: That feeling of being looked at differently.

FH: That I was an alien or a enemy or whatever, however they...

RP: You were the enemy.

FH: Yeah. And actually I wasn't. I think we were more truer than most, most people. I don't know. That's how I feel. But no, it turned out alright. I can't, I can't blame them for feeling the way they did now. Now, because we've been through different things and they're entitled to their thinking. But if they learned the truth or more of it, I'm sure their feeling is... then they could draw their own conclusion, right? Whether they're for it or against it. Or for me or for, against me.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.