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RP: Tell us about what you recall regarding December 7, 1941, the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed.

CT: I was in Oregon. I don't remember the actual day. I can remember it said we was in war and I was, where was I? December 7th? I'd be how old? '41 I'd be eleven years old. But I don't remember the day. I probably just forgot what I knew you know. But there is a little story involving that. They had different spots along the valley -- Scott's Valley was just a road going around -- and they had different spots where people would stay out and spot the airplanes going over. And the kids and everybody would take their turn. And I can remember we would have to get our binoculars and look at the plane and then their, folks would be up in the house and we'd have to run up there and tell 'em and they'd look and they'd bring the phone, you had to ring, turn the handle, ring the phone, and they'd get somebody and they'd tell 'em what we saw. And another little story on the side, I was about... let's see, mile, about two and a half miles up there to where we were, this other fellow and I, this other boy and I had our, what do you call it, station where we had to look. So, I was riding, I had a, we had a little heifer, not a little one, a pretty big one, so I don't know why I didn't ride our horse, maybe we didn't have a horse then, but I rode that heifer up there, up and back. I learned one thing though. Don't tie 'em up with a rope because they poop on the rope and then when you gotta get ready you gotta roll up the rope, put it on there, and then go home. That's a mess. [Laughs]

RP: So, about this job that you had spotting the planes, did you do that, how long did that go on?

CT: I can't remember. I can remember two or three times going there, maybe more, but I, that's all.

RP: Did you have a chart or a list of Japanese planes?

CT: No. Just anything that went over we'd holler and just tell 'em what went over, what we saw.

RP: Oh, so you...

CT: We didn't know one plane from another anyway, just pretty young then.

RP: So you just physically described the aircraft?

CT: Yes, yes.

RP: Did you write notes down or you just...

CT: No, we, this, the house was a little bit away from where we were and we'd just run and tell them and that would be it, our duty would be done.

RP: That was a little bit of excitement though.

CT: Yeah. Yes, it was. Not really excitement. We didn't grasp everything then. Maybe because we weren't afraid of it being so remote that anything would happen.

RP: How far were you from the coast, the coastline?

CT: Oh, I'm going to guess, thirty miles maybe. Not too far. No balloons fell over though, flew over.

RP: Did you, you heard, you heard about that story about one of the, the bomb that was dropped, I think it was south of Roseburg? A bomb dropped from a plane that I think was launched from a Japanese submarine off shore. A bomb fell, sat there for a while, and a family was out on a picnic one day...

CT: Then found it later?

RP: Found it and...

CT: Yeah I vaguely remember something like that. That's been recently that they found it?

RP: No, this was, I believe it was '43 or...

CT: Oh, okay.

RP: It might have been after you came to Big Pine.

CT: Could have been 'cause I think we moved to Big Pine in... thirteen, '42, probably 1942. 'Cause I started Big Pine High when I was twelve.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.