<Begin Segment 8>

JK: When Pearl Harbor happened, where were you? How did you first find out about Pearl Harbor being bombed?

AO: I was out, and as I mentioned, I played basketball in the Japanese basketball league, and we played every Sunday at Peninsula Park, they had a gymnasium near where we played. So I was there playing basketball when word came out that Pearl Harbor had been attacked.

JK: And what did you do?

AO: Well, we came home immediately after that. And when I came home, the FBI agents were, there were, I think, three of them, were still in our house, and they were searching our house for my father. And my mother told him that he was down at the office downtown, but they wanted to search the house anyway. So they were going through every nook and cranny and door of the house looking for him. And then they finally left, and they found him down at the office downtown.

JK: What were your feelings at the time you saw the FBI searching?

AO: Well, I didn't know what to expect, but I figured since he was a newspaper, he ran a newspaper, he would be one of the... I would expect him to be one of the first ones to be picked up by the federal government, and he was.

JK: And what happened when they took him? Did you know where he went?

AO: Yes, he was put in Multnomah County jail, and I don't know how many Japanese community leaders were there, but there were a number of them there. I did have the opportunity to go visit him there at the jail a couple of times, and I do remember going there and seeing him at the jail.

JK: What did you two talk about?

AO: Well, I don't know. Of course, the newspaper folded that day when they took him. And so my mother and the other people who were helping out at the newspaper packed the printing press, I believe he had two presses and a whole bunch of, lot of type, packed the two printing presses and the type up in boxes and stored them across the street at a hotel called the Foster Hotel, which was run by, I believe it was owned and run by a Japanese person that my dad knew. And they stored all of his equipment in the basement of that hotel. So he had nothing left in the office and the printing area.

JK: What was your mom's reaction? How was she reacting to all this happening to your dad?

AO: Well, I don't know. I never sat down with her and discussed anything. I was fifteen at the time and at that age, I of course had no knowledge whatsoever about finances or anything other than lunch money and making a little money to buy candy and stuff. So I didn't have any discussion with her about him, but she must have gone through an awful lot to survive all that trouble.

JK: How about your sister Minnie?

AO: She was in college, she was in her first year of college at the time that the war broke out, so she was at home.

JK: How were your neighbors or your schoolmates responding about Pearl Harbor or what was happening to your dad?

AO: As I mentioned before, I didn't really feel any bad effects from any of my hakujin friends. They all treated me very respectfully, and I didn't have any difficulties. I did not meet with overt prejudice. One of the teachers, my English teacher, called Miss Plympton, she was very sympathetic, I remember. I did not get any offensive treatment at all at the school that I attended.

JK: Did you find out from other kids that their fathers were also taken?

AO: Oh, yes.

JK: Were you supportive of each other or kept each other updated?

AO: Yes. I don't think there was any group activity or community activity, because all the ones that were the community leaders were the ones that were all taken. So there was no community leadership left amongst the ones that were not put in jail.

JK: When you did receive notice that you needed to pack and report to the assembly center, what did your family have to do to get ready besides packing away your father's printing presses? How did your mom and you and your sister handle your home, your personal effects?

AO: Yeah, we were renting the house. I remember we had to sell our car, we had a Graham, which my mother sold. I don't know what she did with all of the other belongings because all we could take with us to the assembly center was what each one of us could carry. So we just had one bag that each of us was allowed to take to the assembly center.

JK: And what did you pack special in your bag?

AO: I can't remember, other than clothes. The only thing that I can specifically remember was because I played basketball, I had a wire eyeglass protector that I wore when I played basketball, so I do remember taking that and making sure that I had that in case I was able to play basketball wherever we went.

JK: And how did you get your father's things to him? I mean, how did he get ready to go to his relocation?

AO: I have no idea. I don't know anything about his clothes or anything like that at all.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.