Price for Peace

When people think about war,

they quite often think

about D-Day as being Normandy,

and Utah Beach, 'cause they got

the most play in the media,

but there were at least 40 in the Pacific,

some just as bad, if not worse, than

the casualties on D-Day in Normandy.

The beaches were calm,

and there were palm trees.

I remember looking down

at the palm trees and wondering

if I was about to die

in this peaceful place.

At Pearl Harbor on the morning

of December 7, it was Sunday morning,

a lot of men had had liberty

the night before.

Some were having breakfast,

some going to church, some asleep.

The Zeros coming off the Japanese

carriers began to appear in Hawaii.

They found us completely unprepared.

We couldn't believe

what was happening. It was so fast.

I was getting mad because they were

knocking not only our ships out,

but they were knocking out

a major part of our air power.

We were looking towards the USS

Arizona and there was a huge explosion.

I'd never seen anything like it.

It was just one big ball of fire.

I never thought about dying

or anything like that.

I was only focused on my target.

Everything was on fire.

Everything looked like it was exploding.

I knew I was supposed to knock

this plane down in front of me,

to get on his tail and shoot him down,

and I managed to do that.

You see all of that,

then this hate starts to come in.

And, damn it, this is war, this is war.

The Imperial army and navy,

before daybreak on December 8th,

went into battle against the US

and British forces in the West Pacific.

The precision of the attack

was perfect in every way.

We lost 2400 people in Pearl

Harbor, December 7th 1941.

Everybody wanted revenge,

total revenge. I know I did.

I wanted to destroy the whole nation

of Japan. I hated 'em. Everybody did.

They made the American people so mad,

there would never be

any compromise in this war.

We're going for

unconditional surrender.

The American people

in their righteous might

will win through to absolute victory.

We just knew that we were the enemy.

We were considered the enemy because

Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor.

I didn't even know

where Pearl Harbor was.

My father was born on 4 July,

and he made sure we put the flag out

and everything.

We were brought up to be Americans.

There was a feeling in Pearl Harbor

that the Japanese Americans in Hawaii

had been giving information

to the Japanese forces in Tokyo.

We were afraid they'd do this

on the West Coast.

But there had been not a single incident

of sabotage or spying.

None of that happened.

Japanese Americans

from the West Coast were interned

into ten internment camps

across the US.

We were told we could only bring

what we could carry.

And so most of our things

we had to leave behind.

They were rounded up and put

into camps that they were guarded in.

When we arrived and saw the buildings,

it was very, very depressing.

How would you like to be taken away,

to know that people

are watching you all the time,

that your letters are being read,

that you can't communicate with people?

My brother used to put it this way:

It's like you've been raped

by somebody you trusted.

And so you can't talk about it.

It was your country that did this to you.

And you couldn't talk about it for years.

Young Japanese Americans

volunteered for the US Armed Services,

even as their families were held

in these camps.

My uppermost thought was,

they've stripped me of my citizenship,

which was most valuable to me.

Therefore, when they gave me

a chance to join the military,

that was my liberation,

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