<Begin Segment 9>

LT: Well, let's go to the action that spurred this, because in the morning after December 7, 1941, you had visitors at your home. Can you talk about what happened and what you heard and saw as a kid?

SA: Oh, that's when the FBI came. Of course, in those days, didn't lock the door, they walked in and we thought we heard something coming upstairs, that's where our bedrooms were, you know, the folks and us. Then we all woke up when this one fellow's standing right by the door, and the other fellow was telling Dad to get dressed and come downstairs, and we tried to get up and this fellow said, "You guys just stay there." And he stayed there all the time while Mom went downstairs with Dad, and we went through the desks where Mom had kept letters she got from home. And that's what really disturbed her, is she said they took all her letters. Said, "These young guys don't know what they're doing," he said, "when you leave a country at a young age and never see your sister or folks again, you keep all those letters for the memory." That's what really disturbed her. Actually, they got that letter back, but after they left... of course, they took Dad, too. We started burning everything that looked Oriental. We had the kids' 78 records and stuff, and had this fire going. It's the bathhouse fire, you know, you have a fire pit below a steel tank, and she starts throwing everything in there. But I could still see those records being all kind of warped as the heat hits it, and bluish, kind of bluish-yellowish flame. But for a while, we didn't even know where Dad was, 'til after, about the end of December, got a message through somehow, grapevine or something, that Dad wanted a shaving kit and stuff to shave.

LT: And where was he?

SA: He was in Multnomah County Jail. About the end of the month he finally... oh, I guess Nob drove Mom down to visit him. We finally got the word that he can have visitors, you know.

LT: And what did she learn about your father and what kinds of conversations did they have?

SA: Well, the thing Grandma wanted to know is what to spray and what to do on the farm at that time of the year, which is more time for dormant spray.

LT: That must have been so difficult. Going back to when the FBI came to your home, what do you remember thinking and feeling as you were seeing the FBI agents and you were hearing the sounds, and you knew your father was being taken?

SA: Yeah, one thing that came to my mind, to ask the guys if they had a search warrant. But I thought, oh, golly, that'd be a dumb thing, so I never did ask him. But I thought that'd be funny. Well, there was not much you can do, you know. You just, whatever they tell you to do, that's it, I guess, that condition, situation.

LT: So after you burned your family's Japanese memorabilia, you said you went to school. Can you talk again about the responses from your classmates?

SA: I don't remember talking to anybody for a few days. Nobody approached me for any conversation. It was kind of a lonely time.

LT: And why do you think people were not talking with you as much after this happened?

SA: Oh, I figured, "His dad was a bad one, a spy." So they didn't want to be associated with anybody like that. They didn't want to get in trouble.

LT: Well, if your classmates felt that and you were being snubbed at school, did you also begin to wonder if your father was a spy?

SA: Do what?

LT: Your classmates were wondering. Did you also begin to question whether your father was a spy?

SA: Yeah, I thought I mentioned that before. We, my brother and I, we used to go in the, started to go in the barn attic and said, "My gosh, maybe he's got a shortwave radio hidden somewhere," and we started going through the attic among all the junks up there. And we had a haystack in one part of the barn, and we went through part of that. And finally decided Dad wasn't smart enough to be a spy. [Laughs] But you get some funny feelings, funny ideas.

LT: Sure. Were there other precautions that your family took after...

SA: Pearl Harbor?

LT: After Pearl Harbor?

SA: No, I don't think so.

LT: Okay. Were you able to travel and continue going to school and get money and make purchases?

SA: Able to travel. But we had to be, they had a curfew, nine o'clock curfew, you know. You had to be in by nine.

LT: Okay. And so you and your mother and your family then continued caring for the farm in the absence of your father.

SA: Yeah. Of course, that wasn't too long, because we had to evacuate by May 13th, after we learned when President Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066 or something like that. Anyway, we had to be out by May (15), 1942.

LT: And so how did your family hear that you would need to leave your home and your farm, and what did they do to prepare?

SA: The only thing we had to have, be able to carry our own suitcase, that was it. And be at the train depot by nine o'clock in the morning or something, I forgot the exact time.

LT: What about your farm and your home and all your belongings? What did you do with them?

SA: Oh, the farm, we had, that's when my brother George came back from the army for three days to find somebody to lease it. Of course, in those days, they had kind of a rumor going around that all the farms are being taken care of, hoping some of the people would have to leave without getting anybody. Well, that's when, like my brother George came back from the army and found this neighbor who was really nice. But you are allowed one suitcase that you can carry, that was about it. And our belongings, like if you wanted to sell anything, you had a few days to sell it, I guess. But I don't think we sold anything. Like we had an old upright piano Kiyo used to take lessons in, you know. And that disappeared, but that was about it.

LT: Okay. Well, you said you could take one suitcase, what you could carry. Do you remember as a seventeen year old kid, your dilemma of what to take and what not to take?

SA: No, I don't remember. Probably... of course, in those days, I didn't have many clothing to decide. Like underwear and pajamas and maybe a couple of pants and shirts and that's about it, handkerchief, socks.

LT: Were there any special things that you recall having to leave behind?

SA: No. Like I said, never had much possession of good things.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.