Stubborn Twig – Excerpt
The next day, early in the afternoon, he got a call from Hugh Ball, editor of Hood River’s weekly newspaper, telling him that the Japanese had attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Masuo was dumbstruck. After a long moment, he managed to ask: “Is that an authentic report? Has that been verified?” Ball said yes.
Masuo’s first thought was to tell his countrymen. He grabbed a heavy winter coat from the closet and ran more than a mile to the Japanese Community Hall, where many of the valley’s nikkei were gathered for a church service. “Remain calm,” he told them, trying to keep his own voice steady. “Return to your homes.” He ran home himself, panting and almost wild-eyed, stopping by a vacant lot where his sixteen-year-old son Homer was playing football with several neighborhood boys. Homer had never seen his father so agitated. “I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Homer remembered, “but I knew it wasn’t going to be good.”
Masuo’s next thought was for his son, Minoru, working in Chicago at the time. Min had gone through ROTC at the University of Oregon–the first two years were required of all men; he chose to continue for the final year–and held the rank of lieutenant in the reserve army. After shepherding Homer back home, Masuo ran downtown to the Western Union office to fire off a telegram to Min:
AS WAR HAS STARTED YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOUR SERVICE AS A UNITED STATES RESERVE OFFICER I AS YOUR FATHER STRONGLY URGE YOU TO RESPOND TO THE CALL IMMEDIATELY