<Begin Segment 33>

SS: I know for a lot of people who have gone through very difficult experiences, sometimes talking about it helps them sort through feelings or go through some sort of healing process. Was it like that for you early on?

HW: Yes, yes. Very true. Because first it was better not to talk about it. We avoided it. When we moved to Seattle, Edith and I decided that we would not move to an area where there are any other Japanese. Because we didn't want to gather up and then be... talked about. We didn't wanna create a community, however small it is. So we moved out to what is called Rainier View now. We didn't know of any other Japanese family out there, excepting -- we didn't even know the Kubota Garden was right there -- but anyway, that was in 1948.

SS: When were you finally able to talk more about it, and sort of come to terms with all of this?

HW: Well, yeah, little by little, you know. I guess it was, must've been around 1975, '76, or '78, somewhere around in there. The guys that I was working with -- I was part owner of a lease company, car lease, and worked for an auto dealer and we had the company in the same place. And one of the salesmen started saying things about, about what happened, and kind of derogatory. I talked to him a little bit, and we were over in a restaurant having hamburgers and he started in again and I blew my cork. The restaurant got quiet while I finished. [Laughs] That kinda broke it loose. From then on I've been much more open. I didn't wanna talk about it, because I figured, well, if you're ignorant you're never gonna get any better. But then, actually, there is no such thing as an ignorant person. It's just a, it's a conception, and if you communicate with them properly, they'll get the message. But if you communicate with anger, they'll never get the message. 'Cause they'll push it aside. So, I keep reminding myself, my father said, "Always talk from the positive side, never use the negative." And if you're angry, you're using the negative side. But bein' human being, I can get into that negative side once in awhile. I try not to. Yup, that's, I wish I had learned to do that better when I was younger.

SS: If there's any good that came of all of that, it sounds like it's the public education. Being able to share your story.

HW: Well, public education, and I would like to see communities with a front yard instead of a backyard. So the people would be right out on the street. If you walk down the street, you'd see everybody on a summer night, bein' in the yard. You see, before the war all the yards were in front of the houses. Since World War II, all the yards are in the back where nobody can see you. Privacy, privacy, privacy. So they lose contact with the neighborhood. The casual contact, people walking by, or driving by. You don't see any bodies in front of the house, only the front of the house. People might be in the house, or might be in the backyard, but you don't see 'em. I think that's one of the sadness, of how the community has changed. Houses used to be in the back of the lot, in front with the yard where the house was where the driveway and the place to sit under a tree or something, or, you know. Swings and so forth are out there, right in plain view. Now they're all in the backyard, and I, I think that's a travesty. Human beings are social things, you know. [Laughs]

<End Segment 33> - Copyright © 1996 Densho. All Rights Reserved.