<Begin Segment 5>

VO: So how old were you when Pearl Harbor...

EO: I was eleven, and we were having a slumber party at the church, a group of us girls. And we were told in the morning what had happened. But I don't know how I reacted. It was just such a faraway thing, you know, we didn't know where Pearl Harbor was. So I just can't remember how I reacted.

VO: Do you remember the reaction at home with your family?

EO: No, I have no recollection. If they talked about it, they never talked to the kids.

VO: And so did you go to school the next day?

EO: Yes. But you know, the school was primarily Japanese, so it was no problem. And the teachers were all very good to us. They never showed any signs of discrimination.

VO: So what happened to your parents then?

EO: Well, let's see, the war started in December, and many of the leaders in the community, the Isseileaders were being picked up the FBI. So actually my father didn't go until quite a bit later. But he knew they would come to get him. So I think it wasn't until about April that they finally got him. I wasn't home, it was just my mother and my dad, and they took him away. But he was prepared. He was all ready to go because he knew they would come after him. See, one of the things they went through was his college yearbook. And you know, in those days, the students all wore military-type uniforms, so it looked like he was in the military. So that might have had something to do with it, I'm not really sure.

VO: So even though it was religious training, they wore a uniform that looked military.

EO: Uh-huh. Even from their, I think, I don't know how soon they started that uniform, if it's from high school or from college, but they all wore uniforms.

VO: And so where was your father taken to?

EO: Okay, they took him first to the immigration office in Seattle, the top floor was, had the jail. And so we did go visit him once over there. And that's right, the immigration building is right by the train depot. Then they shipped him to Missoula, Montana, it was called Fort Missoula, which still exists today, because I did visit their museum.

VO: Do you remember that visit to your father in the immigration office?

EO: Yes, I do remember.

VO: How did he seem to you?

EO: He seemed okay. He wasn't... I just really don't remember. We just went to visit him.

VO: And with your mother, did you sense how, what impact it had on her to have her husband taken away?

EO: She never said, she never said. I'm sure she told, she talked to her friends, but she never said much to us kids. I guess she didn't want to worry us.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.