<Begin Segment 6>

GH: And so letters even came from overseas. But, letters that were anonymous -- the only ones that, between Esther and me, the only one that got anonymous letters were Esther. She was regarded as the traitor to her race, and therefore she had all kinds of critical comments, and ones that ridiculed her and so on. One of the pictures showed sort of a slant eye where my face was shown, and with some kind of phrase, negative phrase. It even went into pictures of advertisements. There was one picture, colored picture of, I think it was a carpet or linoleum advertisement. And this one had a crib, and a sailor and his wife admiring a picture -- a baby in the picture, and the caption that was penned in under was, "A picture like this will never be yours." And things like that. I received a lot of letters...

TI: But before you talk about those letters, I mean, did any of those anonymous letters... what, how did you feel about those? What was going through your mind as you saw these...?

GH: Well, this reinforced the general public views, the general reaction, I mean, so it was no surprise. But it was reinforcing clear cut that, I didn't think it'd be that clear cut. Only she received those criticism. Nobody criticized me. I mean I was involved in the same marriage, you know.

AI: And about when was this that this came out in the news?

GH: This was 1945.

AI: In the fall of the year?

GH: Oh, let's see. It was, well in the winter, winter months. We got married in the middle of the summer. So, certain things happened to speed it up. I mean she didn't even, she changed her plans to go to Massachusetts General which was her aim. And she would finish it in one of the, you know, in Seattle someplace.

TI: What was Esther's reaction to the anonymous letters?

GH: Well, she was, well she was told by her parents that, "Well, this reinforces the public view." If this was going to alarm us, we weren't very realistic. And so, you know, they didn't, this wasn't very surprising to them. However, she got anonymous phone calls and she found herself defending a marriage that she respected, and described, and what she hoped for and so on. And she said some didn't give a grounding for any kind of intelligent discussion. It was just negative outburst, and that was about it. But she said, "I got some strength out of having someone who raised some serious concerns and warnings to me." And did you know about this and that, about the problems? And she was able to field those and to express her views. And then having the person say, "Well, I appreciated very much your sensitive, considerate comments. I learned a lot." And she said she found herself hanging up and just needing to sit down because it took that kind of energy to prepare herself. But the end product was that she was able to grow with that experience, and that was of course a necessary part for us to continue. If this was going to decimate her, I mean, there's no future. We could see that and we should face it. Well, that kind of picture didn't emerge. In fact, it was the opposite. So we had, we had a, in fact among the other side, a G.I. in Corigador...

TI: When you say "other side," you mean you received other letters that were actually signed...

GH: Other, yeah...

TI: ...that were addressed to both you...

GH: ...well, yeah. This one was not anonymous. He signed his name. But it was somebody she didn't know who was responding to the news. And he enclosed a $50 check. Said that, "I'm risking my life out here for the rights of citi -- you know, the value of our American citizenship and way of life. And that includes your safety and enjoyment. And I'm contributing this to your future." So the end product was, even the negative ones were a source of strength. She found that she, she was able to muster up the kind of strength -- it made her realize how serious the question was, and that it had to be met and it had to be lived, or else we should change our paths.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.