Densho Digital Archive - Russell Demo Interview (denshovh-drussell-01-0004)

<Begin Segment 4>

RP: Do you recall December 7, 1941?

RD: Yeah. It seemed like, what I can remember, we were living up there on Chattanooga Street, and about a half a block down, across the street, there was a little grocery store. I was over there in the morning when the news came over, over the radio about the bombing. Of course, being, being a young kid then, I didn't, didn't hit me too much there 'til afterwards. Then I tried to enlist in the Marines and they turned me down. And then I got drafted in the army, and as far as you could stand up, see lightning, hear thunder, you were in, you know.

RP: Why did the Marines turn you down?

RD: I was underweight. I was tall and skinny. Like I said, I didn't find out until afterwards they put in limited service. I'd gone through the draft center there, I wanted to get in the Air Force, the mechanic part of it there, you know. And they put me, sent me to the infantry, I mean, to the MPs, and I joined up with them in Arizona.

RP: So can you, can you tell us, after Pearl Harbor, tell us, what was the atmosphere like in San Francisco after the war had begun?

RD: You know, it's hard to say. I really don't remember too much. I know gas and everything was restricted and everything, gasoline, and things were hard to get. I was working at a, at a grocery store, so I was able to get coffee. It was getting the shortage, I was able to get some coffee and stuff like that and bring it home. That was, oh, that was in, when I was working there, about sixteen or seventeen.

RP: Do you remember any blackouts in the city?

RD: You know, really, I don't. There probably was some, but I don't remember any. And I can't think of anything else, I mean, a few earthquakes and a little shaking here and there. It was a while, but I don't remember too much about them either, so we didn't have that many that I know of or remember.

RP: So life kind of went on for you.

RD: Pardon?

RP: Life kind of went on for you.

RD: Yeah, sure, yeah. Yeah, you know, at the time, I didn't think too much about it until I went into the service, and that's when I really, when it really hit me there, you know.

RP: So you got your draft notice when you were eighteen?

RD: Yeah. I was, I was inducted on the eighteenth of March, '43, and then they gave us seven-day furlough and I reported to Monterey on the 25th, Presidio Monterey. And I don't know, I was there, I don't know, four or five days a week, maybe. That's when they sent me to Arizona.

RP: One more question before we move to Arizona. Were... just about the time that you were leaving to go to Arizona, Japanese Americans were beginning to be removed from areas on the West Coast, "evacuated" was the euphemism that was used.

RD: Yeah, I don't remember too much about that, though. I never thought much about it at the time, I guess, 'til after I got to the camp and then I -- [coughs] excuse me -- realized the difference then.