Takea Iguchi was 10 years old when his father was sent to New York to assist the ambassador. They moved to Washington, D.C. in 1941. The war broke out while he was a schoolboy. They received their initial notice to return to Japan in early November 1941. His father received word from Tokyo [Annotator’s Note: Tokyo, Japan] that they were to stay in Washington, D.C. Other Japanese members were assigned to Latin America. Iguchi was playing in the park with his brother when he heard two women discussing the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. They had to go to the Japanese embassy. Some Japanese officials were sleeping on the embassy floor. The FBI [Annotator’s Note: Federal Bureau of Investigation] was stationed outside the building. His mother wanted to buy them Christmas gifts, but his father was angry. They were sent to a hotel in Virginia. They were not allowed to go outside or be near the windows. The FBI informed them that people may try to shoot them if they found out they were part of the Japanese embassy. In the spring of 1942, they moved to West Virginia. They were able to play outside when they moved here. They were in a concentration camp with German embassy staff members. Then they were joined by the Japanese in Canada. In the middle of June, they were transported by train to New York. They were sent to the neutral territory of East Africa.

Takea Iguchi and his family boarded a Japanese ship, and the Americans boarded a Swedish ship. Iguchi had a new bicycle he would ride in Japan that was made in America after the war. His father did not approve of this. Japanese-Americans were kept in camps in the deserts of Arizona. They did not want to forget the Japanese that suffered in Arizona. Roosevelt’s speech [Annotator's Note: Day of Infamy Speech; President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a Joint Session of the United States Congress, 8 December 1941] was powerful. The first hotel they stayed in was not spacious. Iguchi was told not to do boxing. He played baseball and tennis when they moved to West Virginia. He is a Japanese historian of the Pacific War. They were asked to write letters to the brave Japanese soldiers fighting against Chinese troops. It was not until after the war that they discovered they were the invaders. They had been told the Chinese were the invaders. Japanese society indoctrinates young people into military thinking. It was a highly militaristic society. They had a free society and freedom of research.

Takea Iguchi thought Japan had a superior identity. Iguchi was in middle school when Tokyo [Annotator’s Note: Tokyo, Japan] was heavily bombed. Several of his classmates died from their injuries. Iguchi has fragments from bombs in his hands. His father was a high official in the Japanese government. He remembers when the first bomb hit Hiroshima [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. A survivor from the bombing came to their house. Iguchi’s best friend survived the bombing of Nagasaki because his mother protected him from the radiation. When the fire bombing started, they had to go into a bunker in the middle of the night. American planes controlled the air and the sea. In middle school, they learned judo and sword fighting. It was taught by a civilian teacher. Military officers were assigned to middle schools and high schools to teach Army drills. They were taught guerrilla tactics. Many people were weeping in the palace after the surrender.