Densho Digital Archive
Oregon Nikkei Endowment Collection
Title: Yoichi "Cannon" Kitayama Interview
Narrator: Yoichi "Cannon" Kitayama
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Portland, Oregon
Date: April 27, 2013
Densho ID: denshovh-kyoichi-01-0010

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TI: So I'm going to jump now to December 7, 1941, so it's a Sunday. And can you tell me where you were when you first heard that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor?

YK: I was at Peninsula Park in North Portland, and that was on a Sunday, and all the kids, we used to go to basketball games, either participating or to watch. I was too young to play in the games, but I went to watch, and that's when I heard it. It must have been in the afternoon, I think, two-hour time difference. And by the time I think the news got around and came around after noon. After we found that out, we kind of worried about, how are going to go home? 'Cause we used to catch the streetcar all the time. But we figure if we're in a group, pretty safe. So we got back on the streetcar. At that time, there was nothing derogatory about us being Japanese and stuff like that. Of course, being Sunday, there weren't that many people riding the streetcar either. The other thing is they couldn't tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese. So they kept pretty much to themselves.

TI: And so when you got home, what did your parents say? Did they say anything to you about what happened?

YK: No, I think they did... I don't remember too much about it. Yeah, I think they said, "We're at war," that's about it. I wasn't too concerned with them, kind of too young to understand. We went, that was a Sunday, so next day we went to school, I don't think there was anything special, anything different about it. Seemed like... yeah, I don't think, I think more than anybody else, the Chinese didn't like us. Caucasians didn't matter. You'd find one or two here and there that called us "Japs" and stuff like that. But most of the people didn't care.

TI: But you said the Chinese maybe didn't like you more. Was that because Japan was fighting China?

YK: Yeah.

TI: And so did that feeling change? Because I think when you were younger, everything seemed to be okay when you were in kindergarten, things like that, so that sort of feelings between Chinese and Japanese sort of got worse because of what was happening in Asia, do you think?

YK: Yeah, I think so. Except the people you knew, that didn't change. It's our friends who were still friends. That part was okay, it's just that there are those that are just acquaintance, or sort of familiar with, their attitude was much stronger.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.