I never will forget that day. The day all our lives changed forever: December 7, 1941. At first, it was just backlash. My store, Crimson's Mercantile, felt the effects immediately. You could practically hear the whispers, "That's the store belonging to that cat married to that Jap woman. We don't want to go in there anymore." It wasn't even an organized boycott. It didn't have to be.

Then poonannypie opened his store. Couldn't blame him, really. What can be more American than capitalizing on the misfortune of others? Here was someone that could run a business and not be accused of being a "Jap lover." It was all duck soup for him. But somehow or another, I kept my business afloat. I tried almost every gimmick I could to get them to come. Cutting prices, handing out flyers, and even buying ad space on the wall of laughwithme's restroom.

The worst was yet to come. It was difficult continuing to keep things afloat for my wife pvc3  and  Sandyquill. The depression seemed to be hitting me and my family at the same time that everyone else seemed to be getting out of it. But then, last year, everything truly went south.

Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which in effect destroyed my family. Pvc3 was rounded up along with Sandyquill and shipped to Tule Lake. As for my son theRacket, we already had our falling out before the start of the war. We had visited his grandparents in Osaka when he was 15, and he felt as if he was closer to the culture of his mother's family. I wanted him to learn to manage the store, but he blew town at 17. Last his mother heard from him, he was hopping a freight ship to Japan before the war started. I tried my best to instill in that boy the idea of being American and supporting a family. But he had to be different. About the only trait he inherited from me was stubborness. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have served him well in this case; especially since last I heard he has claimed allegiance to Emperor Hirohito.

Life was so different in the early days. I remember when I held the position as the chaffeur to the U.S. ambassador to Japan back in the Coolidge administration. I spent many days in Japan, and it was there that I met the most lovely woman I have ever seen: the woman who would become my wife, PVC3. It was difficult trying to court her. Her family didn't like me, especially her father. He accused me of just looking for a geisha. He thought PVC3 could do better than a lowly chaffeur, even one with as an important passenger as I had. But eventually, my stubborness and strong will paid off. She was mine. I had to promise her father that she would never suffer and I would provide for her. Little did I know that was a promise out of my control to keep.

I thought moving to America and opening the store would be the best thing in the world to happen to us. The births of theRacket followed by Sandyquill only seemed to confirm that. But the winds of war can change everything.

Now I sit in my store waiting for a better day to come. The house our family lived in was sold and I now live in an apartment above the store. My wife and daughter know nothing but prison walls thanks to that detestable old fool Roosevelt, and my life is spent continuing to keep everything going in the face of rations and my estranged family. I'm not even able to visit them, and the worst part is that my son is a traitor despite all my best efforts.