<Begin Segment 14>

DH: So when your family returned to Bainbridge, you were in about the eighth grade.

JH: Yes.

DH: And it was springtime?

JH: Yes.

DH: Springtime of 1946. Was there any question that your family would not return to Bainbridge Gardens?

JH: Not that I know of. I'm pretty sure that they, that probably within their own community, that there was rumors flying that we were not welcome there, and probably fears and anxieties over that, but they had their land here, on Bainbridge. And I would think that that's one of most precious possessions, next to children, that most Issei had, and I'm sure their intent was to come back.

DH: What did they find when they got back?

JH: Well, pretty much total devastation. The only redeeming fact was the grocery stores were leased to responsible people, and I think it was a viable operation. But, unfortunately, the nursery and the sunken gardens and the greenhouses were left to some very irresponsible people, and they let it totally get destroyed; I think basically through pilfering and neglect. The greenhouses collapsed under the weight of snow and nobody heated them, and the sunken gardens, the valuable plants, and the statuary were all missing. And so it must have been terribly devastating to our family.

DH: Did your parents ever talk about that?

JH: You know, that's another thing that puzzled me. And, they never did, I never did hear 'em say anything remorseful about coming back to what they obviously saw. Again, the protection element, I think. They just, they were steadfast and I think I wrote a story one time about my parents, in that, if they had even landed in hell, they would have made the most, the best of it. Because they were that kind of people.

DH: A sense of gaman?

JH: A sense of gaman is correct, yes.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.