Densho Digital Archive - Jun Ogimachi Interview (denshovh-ojun-01-0007)

<Begin Segment 7>

RP: Jun, what do you remember about December 7, 1941?

JO: Okay, I was out there on the farm working. It was a Sunday. I didn't know anything about it until we come back home at about, it must have been about five or six when we got back and then somebody was hollerin' about it. That's the only time, first time I found out about it. We really didn't know for a few hours. But other than that I don't remember too much other than we just come home. You're workin' all day and come back in, you got to do a lot.

RP: Did you sense any changes after, say the next day that you went to school from schoolmates or anybody else?

JO: No. We didn't feel anything. Everybody just, it was just like they had, nothing happened. It was just normal. It was just normal. It didn't have... there was no... a few days later they start talkin' about it but I guess it, like it was a shock, that's why. You know, everybody really wouldn't know. And then nobody what was goin' on or anything. We tried... we didn't have TV in those days. So it's just whatever people were saying is what you heard.

RP: So you were about fourteen years old when you got the notice that you had to leave San Fernando and pack up and...

JO: Yeah. Yeah, well, we had moved to Pacoima, okay. And we were farming out there and then they told us, then fourteen. I was doin' a lot of things I wasn't supposed to be doing. Like I learned how to drive the truck because out there, there was nothin' out there so I get the, I got our truck and started driving the truck up and down the dirt road there. But other than that, there's... that when we learned then, and you know, there really wasn't that much information given to us either. And then when they signed the bill and everything they told us we had to get out. And so, and we had to do all that preparation for... fortunately we had, instead of trucks, we had all the trucks we had to get you know... but to do other than that. But since we had moved a lot of the stuff in the house and things were, you know, we didn't have anymore, probably got rid of a lot of it when we moved and things. And...

RP: What happened to the trucks?

JO: We had to sell 'em, almost give 'em away. One of 'em we did give to the guy who was gonna take over the farm, the Filipino guy. And he's what you call... I saw him when we come back. He was a nice guy. But you know, what can you do? I mean, there wasn't much we can do. You only had the... when they did notify us we only had a couple weeks. They didn't notice... you know, you don't have months or anything.

RP: So the Filipino man took over the operation of the farm?

JO: Yeah, yeah.

RP: And you had it when you got back?

JO: No. When we got back my dad wasn't there and my brothers were all gone and everything else. It was just me and my mom come back. So, you know, we worked with him for a while there and then I don't know, and then I went into the service. My sister moved back. She couldn't get along with her in-laws and brought the boy and he came down. But when he came down I was gone so when her husband came back down I don't know what he was doin' up there but he was, he was the oldest in that family so...