<Begin Segment 14>

RP: And tell us about December 7, 1941. What do you remember about that day?

NM: It was right after church and from the church we went to a grocery store to do a bit of shopping. And at that time the announcement came over the radio that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. And so we couldn't believe it, of course. So we finished our shopping and hurried back home, back to the, well, our parsonage. And I don't know what we did after that. Probably just listened to the radio. That's the only way we got news.

RP: How did, how did your life change for you and your husband after the war broke out?

NM: I think we continued to live as we were there for a while, that is, at the parsonage. And then when we had to be evacuated we moved in with a widower who had a large house. And so we lived there until we were relocated in May.

RP: And who was that widow that you moved in?

NM: I can't recall her first name, but it's Mrs. Tanaka, T-A-N-A-K-A. Actually, her husband was a well-respected leader of the community. But he had passed away.

RP: I know you weren't there very long, but there was a, was there a Japanese town in Bakersfield or a specific section of the, of the town where Japanese lived?

NM: No, not a concentrated area. But because they were mostly farmers and they were scattered around. And there were a few families that lived, well, I say a few but maybe two or three, who lived in the city itself, the grocery or some kind of restaurant or something like that.

RP: Would your husband go out on ministerial trips to some of these farms and...

NM: Yes. Well, in the beginning we were under curfew and couldn't travel very far. And, but later on we were able to go visit different members of our church and we went around.

RP: There were other restrictions like curfews?

NM: Yes. My husband was a student at SC and so he was commuting I don't know how many days a week. But he couldn't, of course, travel after that. And so he had to, he couldn't go to school after that anyway. And then locally I guess, I don't know whether the curfew lasted for the duration of our time there, but we didn't go around at night very much anyway. Like, I guess we were under some restriction because my sister was in Dinuba, the Fresno area? And so she went back home to Arizona but she was accompanied by a guard or somebody accompanied her. I don't know if it was a guard but I guess for her protection as well. She was a single woman traveling, so, yeah. And she stopped in at our place. So she was allowed some freedom like that. But, yeah, we were restricted in traveling.

Off Camera: Yeah, because before the war she used to go back and she went, was at Biola down here in L.A. She used to hitchhike, right? Back to Arizona.

NM: Oh, I don't know about that.

Off Camera: Yeah. She told us.

NM: Well, the one who hitchhiked I guess was Lita.

Off Camera: And Mariyo did too, before the war. I was thinking gee, a woman?

NM: Maybe she did.

RP: Hitchhiked that distance?

NM: I don't know. We can't find out now. It's too late.

Off Camera: No.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.