Citizen 13660

“Then on December 7, 1941, while my brother and I were having late breakfast I turned on the radio and heard the flash—“Pearl Harbor bombed by the Japanese!” We were shocked. We wondered what this would mean to us and the other people of Japanese descent in the United States.”

When Okubo first heard the news of a Japanese attack on US land, she was aware that racism would play a part in how she would be treated in the aftermath. Knowing that the US had historically been prejudiced against its nonwhite populations, Okubo suspected that the bombing would incite anti-Japanese sentiment, which would lead to violent outcomes for her and people in her community.

“On the West Coast there was talk of possible sabotage and invasion by the enemy. It was ‘Jap’ this and ‘Jap’ that.”

The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor led to the rise of xenophobia against not only Japan but Japanese people living in the US. There was suspicion that Japanese Americans were secretly working with Japan during World War II. The term “Jap” became a widely used racial slur during this time.

“Better get ready for induction, kids. It’s your turn now!”

While Okubo did not mention many of her family members aside from her brother who she was interned with, she had another brother in the US army whose joke regarding their internment ultimately became a reality. In the beginning, it was uncertain what internment life would look like for Japanese Americans, making it a joke-worthy event, in Okubo’s brother’s case. However, Okubo would come to find that the harsh and demoralizing conditions of the internment camps provided few occasions for humor.