<Begin Segment 15>

RP: Were... your parents must've been keeping up with world events and...

AS: They were avid readers.

RP: Japan invaded China, and...

AS: Yeah, my father was a avid writer. Both of them were, really. But he never thought of going to Japan, because we all had dual citizen. Well, took ours off long time ago, but he never expected to go to Japan, so he was so happy when they finally... that law, you know, they got to be citizens, he, they were quite old. Boy, I remember them studying, pretty hard to study, but they got their citizenship before they passed away. They were, we never...

RP: So were they shocked when war broke out between the United States and Japan?

AS: Yeah, but they're still, deep down their roots are Japan, huh? But they didn't believe in all that. My mom, I know we, she was quite a reader and she talked to us a lot of things, and she didn't like the way that country's run.

RP: Japan.

AS: Yeah, she always talked to us about it, so we listened to her and all. Of course you don't know how our country's run either, but anyway... she talked to us. But she thought it wasn't right.

RP: How did the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor affect you and your family?

AS: Well, they really were shocked, but I think they kept reading things and they knew the country was getting choked, this talk about it.

RP: So, you mean like an, the embargo?

AS: Embargo. He says, "How could that little country --" they knew how small -- he said, "Now how could a little country survive?" I know they went to Manchuria and all that part, too, but a little country could not survive. And what Roosevelt did, too, was just... I mean, this, what was it? Some tell me that when they opened the archives, did you know President Roosevelt, he, they knew what happened. He's the one that caused all that, that Pearl Harbor thing. You know, you shouldn't have all the ships in the harbor there. You should have 'em out. Had 'em there, had the planes all there. I heard, I heard he really committed suicide, at the end.

RP: Roosevelt?

AS: That I heard. Somebody was telling me. Somebody knew somebody that, a neighbor of his... this woman was a housekeeper of the, I think Elizabeth Arden. They lived next door to them, and he said yeah, 'cause, well you gonna choke a country, huh? How it is. Small country. You know Japan is really small. At least... only reason they survived because, with all the people there, but they kind of keep it down. Funny, my mom she kept up things, but she knew it wasn't the right thing to do and all, and the people in Hawaii, too. Boy, I thought, really, those people saw the planes coming over and all. But, I mean, you just can't choke a little country. I guess they had to do something. But he knew. He knew what's going on.

RP: You had, so you had become engaged to Dan and you were gonna get married.

AS: Oh yeah, long time. We went around together for a long time. From high school, oh, about five, ten years. I knew him long time, yeah.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.