12/7/41 and 9/11/01 “We never finished decorating the store”

It happened on a Sunday morning. And this fruit and vegetable stand that I worked at was closed on Sunday, but on that particular Sunday we were asked to come out and help decorate the store for Christmas. So we were all there when this owner’s friend came over and started talking about Pearl Harbor. And my boss happened to be married to a Hawaiian Japanese so he knew where Pearl Harbor was right away. He was in such a state of shock I think. What I remember is that he just sat down and said something about, “Boy they sure had a lot of guts,” to that effect. I don’t remember if he said it in Japanese or English, but we never finished decorating the store.

Anger “At best it was awkward”

The day after, when we went back to school, President Roosevelt gave a speech that morning and they had turned it on all over the school. At best it was awkward to be there. But I ran into this guy in the hallway and he was so angry he just told me to go back to Japan and I was in a state of, where I thought, did I hear my friend say that. And I was really disappointed. But I realized that there were some people understandably affected by the change status so to speak. So I could understand how angry he might have been, but I was very disappointed.

Fear “We knew it wasn’t going to be the same anymore”

It was a terrible thing. We really didn’t know what the future was going to be. We knew it wasn’t going to be the same anymore. The atmosphere was building up. We would have blackouts. We would come out in the morning and wonder what was this all about. Things going off at night. I think what they wanted to stress was that nobody was spying, helping the enemy so to speak. They would have things happen and no explanation. You’d think, there must have been a bomb somewhere or invasion or something, but you didn’t want to ask questions either because they’ll say, “What’s this guy so curious about?”

Identity “I should be saying I’m an American”

Well for example, even before the war, some people on Colorado Street would stop and ask me, “Are you Japanese?” Just by looking at me. So I would say yes. Then I’d go home and I’m thinking how come I’m answering that as Japanese when I should be saying I’m an American.