~*Sonya Rabang*~     

For this project I interviewed my grandmother Sonya Rabang. During the war years Sonya as a little girl of seven lived with her uncle and her relatives on Bainbridge Island.  She told me that she remembers the black outs where they would cover all the windows so no lights would shine through.  The result of this was invisibility and safety for the planes that flew above. The family would use candles for light instead of lamps. There was also a food rationings during the war because Sonya and her family had to keep as much food as possible because they couldn’t purchase food on a regular basis.  Some of the food that they ate was fish, clams, and octopus because her uncle was a fisher man.      

While the war was occurring Sonya told me that all the Japanese had to be evacuated from their homes and they were put in concentration camps because of suspicion.  Chinese people would also be mistaken for Japanese so they would also hold signs to tell people the difference.  Sonya’s parents worked in the ship yard during World War II on battle ships, that’s why she lived with her uncle and cousins.  Her reaction to Pearl Harbor was a depressing feeling because her family members cried about all the friends that died and that made her cry too.

It was a time of worry and caution so her and her cousins had to be home at certain time.  As the Japanese were evacuated they would leave behind beautiful houses and gardens. Willingly Sonya and her family would take over the beautiful houses for shelter because no one lived in them anymore.  While living in the beautiful Japanese house Sonya explored the area finding secrets rooms that led to other secret parts in the house.  Since the Japanese couldn’t take anything with them while being evacuated they left all their belongings behind. In the house Sonya would come across gorgeous Japanese dolls and would play with them for her enjoyment. Her opinion to the atom bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not that merciful because she said they bombed first in Pearl harbor so we returned the favor. Sonya’s most lasting memory of the war years was just the food rationings her family had and the black outs they did for protection.