<Begin Segment 15>

RP: Tell us about your experiences on December 7, 1941.

KP: Can we, before we get there, you went to Japan with kendo?

TI: Yes.

KP: How did that come about?

TI: Well, the kendo teacher, he was a dentist, Dr. Fuji, and I guess he had contact with the kendo group in Japan. And it would have been real nice to go to Japan, you know, at that time. Because we were getting kind of strong and we didn't have too much opponents, huh?

KP: So what year was that?

TI: Well, around, I think we went to Japan 1940.

KP: And so when you arrived in Japan, what did you think? You'd heard about it but you'd never been there. What was that like?

TI: Well, I don't know. I wasn't too impressed. [Laughs] It's just another country. They spoke Japanese and naturally that's all they spoke, Japanese, but...

KP: And how were you accepted being an American-born?

TI: Oh, my relatives, they didn't know the difference. When I went to Koza, you know, we stayed there for a while and no...

KP: You said you had problems finding your relatives because of the name?

TI: No.

KP: Did you travel with a group of folks when you went to Japan?

TI: Yes. I think there must have been around fifteen, sixteen of us doing kendo. And of course the schedule was all set up for us so all we did was follow instructions, get ready to go to another city and that was it.

KP: And you also went to a couple other countries.

TI: Yes, we went to Korea and then we went to Manchuria.

KP: And what was that like?

TI: Well, it was no different from Japan.

KP: Do you remember...

TI: Of course the ones that we associated with in Korea, they were Japanese, you know, doing kendo there. And same thing in Manchuria.

RP: Just a follow up question to that. How, was there any differences in the kendo that you'd been taught versus the kendo that you saw in Japan, Manchuria, and Korea?

TI: In Japan? I didn't think there, there was any difference. No, I don't think there was any difference. Of course they were stronger than we were. They were more polished.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.