<Begin Segment 10>

RP: Just another couple of questions about this trip that your father took the entire family to Japan. Do you know what year that was? How old were you?

TH: Yes. My father took the whole family to Japan in 1935. We stayed five months in Japan. And at the end of five months, that was when Japan was really showing its militaristic tendencies, and the military is taking over the country, and there was a, some kind of an incident in Japan in February of 1936. And my father said, "Oh, we must get back to the U.S. immediately." And so we came back and left Nobu behind.

RP: Was that... Nobu's decision, sort of sudden decision to stay in Japan. Did that initiate a lot of discussion between your father and him? Was it kind of a confrontational situation?

TH: No, I don't think there was. My father and mother trusted Nobu, that was his decision and he was going to stay with it. And so they let him stay. Of course, he was criticized by his friends for doing that, but it turned out okay.

RP: Did you hire other help? I know you had your own family labor force, but did you hire seasonal help on the flower farm at all?

TH: Actually, we had a Filipino man, (Delfino Montecalvo), who lived on the premises, and he was a very good employee. And my father was very fond of him and vice versa.

RP: Did you have, were you taking newspapers, or did you have radio at your house? I mean, how much did you keep up with events in the world, especially towards the later part of the '30s?

TH: We were great radio fans, and of course we took the San Francisco Chronicle since the time we moved up to the Bay Area. And the Japanese American dailies as well, and Life Magazine.

RP: And so you graduated from Sequoia High?

TH: Yes, I graduated from Sequoia High in 1941.

RP: June? What month?

TH: June.

RP: So were your parents and you aware of the collision course that the United States and Japan were on?

TH: I think my father, of course, he's reading the papers and listening to the radio and talking with other people, he was very aware that something bad could possibly happen, but of course, I was oblivious to it.

[Interruption]

RP: Tamiko, you had talked about this, this student club you had, a Japanese American Student Club at the high school. Were you also aware of the Japanese American Citizens League at that time, and did they have a chapter in the Bay Area?

TH: At that time, I was not a member of the Japanese American Citizens League. Of course, I was too young for that, but they were not as strong then as I recall. The Japanese American Students Club in Sequoia High School was strictly a social club and a service club. And that was it.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.