<Begin Segment 7>

SG: How did you and your mother, I mean, how did your mother feel about the American occupation especially after them being the enemy?

MK: Well, she just, it's interesting because one day when I came home from school, my house was full of occupation officers, and my mother was having a wonderful time with them, with broken English, whatever it was. And Okayama was occupied by many Indians and Australians, and it was so strange to see people with turbans in my house. And my mother was thinking about survival, I think, that if she invited these people to the house, they will bring food so that she could feed the children. So I remember my mother was quite happy, she had no prejudice against them.

SG: How about yourself? What were your feelings?

MK: I thought... children are so strange. I was brought up to hate Americans because they are evil people. You know, that's what the teacher told us. That's why we had to practice how to stop Americans and kill them. But one day when the fighter plane came and went across, at first, it was way up from... northern window of my house was way up there and then disappeared, so I rushed to the southern window when the plane just roared and came right and then right past in front of my eyes, very low using some kind of machine gun, shooting at somebody. But when the plane passed by just in front of me, I saw him, his profile, and then he had big nose, and all the Japanese people had small nose. You know, it's just so strange. I felt good about seeing Americans with big nose and then say, oh, I wish I had big nose, you know. I don't know. I know teacher asked us to hate, adults asked us to hate, and kempeitai, the military police came and made sure that we hated Americans, but I had always felt differently. And then particularly after the war when I saw the picture of MacArthur standing next to the emperor, emperor looked rigid, you know. He was not handsome, small next to MacArthur, and he was, and then emperor was wearing mourning, the formal clothes, and MacArthur didn't even have necktie, and nobody scolded MacArthur, you know. I said, my gosh. You know, immediately, I realized that we're supposed to look up to Americans. And then I felt, I don't know. I felt good about that.

And then also one day when I was coming home from school, I was by myself when I saw a GI in GI clothes coming towards me. I didn't know what to do. You know, during the war in my pocket in the covering over my head, the padded had all kinds of pockets inside. One of the pockets had cyanide, the powder. If I saw Americans, my mother said that I was supposed to take this white powder. It's better to die than being captured by Americans. Then here I am after the war, I was by myself on the street, here comes the tall, slender man towards me, and I kept wondering, I didn't have white powder, what am I supposed to do here? And he was whistling looking this way and looking that way and then very relaxed, had his hands in his pockets. He was doing everything we're not supposed to do because during the war, I was told to sit and always look straight. When I walked, I walked straight, not meander this way and that way. That's kind of beneath your dignity, that's what my mother said. And then here is a man coming towards me whistling, chewing gum, and then he came. I was frozen, standing frozen. And then he came over and said, "Chewing gum?" And then he gave me chewing gum. I wanted to say thank you, but I didn't know how to say "thank you" in English, so I just looked at him and smiled, you know. And then I was so hungry at the time, and then I always divided whatever I had into four with my siblings. So I got piece of chewing gum, and I smiled at him. I looked at him walk away, and I was so happy. And then I imitated him right away, skipping and hopping, trying to whistle, looking this way and looking that way and went home. And then my mother saw that. Oh, gosh, she got me by the neck and said, "You are not going to imitate Americans. It's beneath your dignity, and don't you remember how your father was?" and all that lecture. But then that's the time I felt that I wanted to go to the United States, so I could do whatever I felt like doing.

SG: How old were you at the time?

MK: I think I was nine years old.

SG: I just had a question. When you were, during the war, did you have any interaction with the kempeitai?

MK: Yes, not directly, but we were told not to say anything loud. And then it got to be so that the moment somebody says kempeitai kuru yo, kempeitai may listen to you or come get you, that was enough to keep us all quiet. And then I remember one of my friends, my neighbor's father, was tall and handsome and then kind of like a professor type, intellectual, bright, and I was told he was a Communist, whatever that was, and I didn't know, but you are not supposed to be a Communist I was told. And then he was taken away and detained. The family was very concerned. My friend was very concerned. But when he came back, he was a broken man, mentally and physically, and everybody said that he was injured, I mean, he was tortured, beaten up by kempeitai, and that was enough example for us to get frightened. Therefore, I wasn't really sure whom I hated more, kempeitai or Americans because I never saw Americans. Only American I saw was in the airplane shooting at us, but then I was not directly involved with Americans. So I think kempeitai scared us more than anything else.

SG: Did you recognize kempeitai?

MK: No, just came around, snooping around, and they often came with candies. They even talked to the children. Kids are all hungry, except I wasn't hungry, but many kids are hungry at the time, some people are starving. So the men would come around and say, "Would you like to have some candies? Would you like some sweet things?" Of course, kids will say yes. In return, the man would ask, "Who visited your father last night?" In that way, some fathers disappeared. I was told that way, so we are all frightened.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.