<Begin Segment 8>

LT: And after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, did someone come to your home to search it?

TT: Yeah, the FBI, the sheriff brought the FBI with him, and they searched everybody's home.

LT: Were you at home when they came?

TT: Yeah, I was home.

LT: What do you remember about that search and about the people who came?

TT: Well, I only remember that the sheriff and the FBI guys, all I was in, sitting on the sofa, and they went in the closet, wherever we had stuff stored, they went through there looking for things. What were they looking for? Maps or... can't remember what they were looking for. Cameras, radios, let's see, what else was there? Anything Japanese. So we knew they were coming, so most of the family got... I think most of them, they just got rid of them, if they had a flag or something like that, or a map of the world. I remember even the Japanese doll, they threw it, got rid of it.

LT: Your family?

TT: Yeah. Anything Japanese. And then guns, dynamite, and shells, because some of them got caught on that dynamite, because most of the famers, they bought dynamite to blow up the stumps in the orchards. So if they get rid of it or couldn't find it or something, then if they found it, I think some of them got pulled in for that.

LT: It must have been difficult for your parents to get rid of Japanese items that they owned.

TT: Yeah, I guess so, but then, I don't know... when a higher up like that comes around, you're kind of scared a little bit, too. So instead of being caught and then being taken into camp, well, those guys that are caught, they were the first one to go to small camp, like I think Missoula, Montana, had a camp where the Isseis were put in, like Mr. Yasui and Mr. Watanabe and Mr. Akiyama, I think, they were called in.

LT: How did your family dispose of Japanese items?

TT: They must have burned it, I guess, I don't remember. But I know I had... when a boy, in Japan, when a boy was born, they used to buy a samurai doll. They used to buy a gift when your boy was born, I guess. That was, I guess, a Japanese custom. I remember I had one, but I don't know what happened to it, must have burned it. Because I don't remember finding it anymore, so, yeah, they must have burned it.

LT: When the FBI and the sheriff came, did they take any items from your home?

TT: No, they didn't. Not from ours, because we didn't have anything that, it was all destroyed by then, so they didn't find anything in there.

LT: Okay.

TT: Unless it was a radio or a camera, I don't remember. But like radio and camera, you're supposed to turn that in to Hood River somewhere, anyway. But if they found it, they'd probably taken it.

LT: After the FBI and the sheriff left, what did you think? What did you and your family say and do?

TT: I don't remember anything about that. I was really relieved that they left, and other than that, we didn't stop and talk about it or anything. I might have said a few words, but, I mean, we didn't have no get-together, meeting or anything like that.

LT: How did your neighbors react?

TT: Well, right away I didn't see my neighbors anyway, but the first time I'd seen some of 'em, this one neighbor was pretty good to us. They might have given us an encouraging word, but other than that, I don't remember too much about it.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.