Densho Digital Archive - Tamiko Honda Interview (denshovh-htamiko-01-0011)

<Begin Segment 11>

RP: What do you remember about December 7, 1941?

TH: December 7, 1941, was an unbelievable day. Something I thought would never happen, of course, we never dreamed of anything like that happening. But I know the relations between U.S. and Japan were, was pretty bad at the time. Just couldn't believe that that happened. Shocking. And of course, first thing that came to my mother and father's mind was Nobu. Was he safe, was he okay? And was he... they knew that he was not in the army at that time. But after that, they didn't know what happened anyway. So there's a lot of unanswered questions that day.

RP: When was the next time that you got correspondence, heard from Nobu?

TH: About in 1943 or '4, 1944, early part of 1944, my parents finally got word from the, two of the International Red Cross that my brother was safe. He was still a student, and so they were very relieved about that.

RP: After Pearl Harbor, there were a number of restrictions that were placed on Japanese Americans.

TH: Yes. It kind of hampered our social life. We had a curfew, of course, we had to be in between the hours of eight at night to six in the morning, and couldn't travel beyond a radius of fifteen miles. I don't know if it was even fifteen miles, but anyway... we had restrictions.

RP: Did you, were you still able to go out and attend movies and events and things?

TH: I'm sorry?

RP: Did you still, were you still able to go out and attend social events?

TH: Yes, we did. We visited our friends. Fortunately, we had close friends nearby, and so we visited with them. Went to some movies, but tried not to go to highly, shall we say, events that could possibly be uncomfortable for us.

RP: Were you aware of Issei community leaders being rounded up by the FBI?

TH: Yes. That was the first thing that happened after Pearl Harbor was this burst of news saying, "Did you know that the FBI had picked up so-and-so and so-and-so and so-and-so?" And fortunately, my father was not one of them.

RP: Were, did the FBI ever visit your home?

TH: No, the FBI did not come to our home. My father was apparently not on their list.

RP: But you knew others that were? You knew other men that were picked up?

TH: Yes, but they were active in the community, and maybe had ties to some pro-Japan groups.

RP: What about, let's see, had you already graduated by the time the war broke out?

TH: Yes.

RP: Do you recall any acts of violence against Japanese Americans in...

TH: There was no recorded violence against Japanese Americans in the community of Redwood City. But we, as I said before, we stayed away from a lot of downtown activities.

RP: Was there a concern on your part as to what was going to happen to Japanese Americans? Or were you aware of some of the propaganda?

TH: We were aware of the propaganda, yes, and it was uncomfortable, but we kept our mouths shut and just tried to avoid any confrontation. But there was none that I know of.