<Begin Segment 15>

AI: But for now, before we go on to Heart Mountain, I wanted to ask you about some of the columns that you wrote for the Pacific Citizen while you were at Puyallup.

BH: Yeah.

AI: Now, the Pacific Citizen was the newspaper published by the National Japanese American Citizens League. And you had several columns where you expressed some of your thoughts and feelings about the prejudice and racial discrimination that was very, again, very hostile from some of the white politicians, particularly in California but also elsewhere. Do you think that it could have been some of these columns, some of your writings at this time that...

BH: Possibly.

AI: ...contributed to your reputation?

BH: Yeah. "He's a rabble-rouser."

AI: And were you aware, yourself, of any of your colleagues that -- or friends at Puyallup looking to you or responding to your writings in regard to their own personal anger, or was there much discussion or just talking about the, the situation?

BH: Oh, I'm sure there were discussions among friends. There were "latrine attorneys" who would get together and gripe and bitch. But I am not aware that these columns had any definite effect. I think I was writing generally from the viewpoint of an American newspaperman who resented injustice. And it's remarkable that the government allowed that sort of stuff to be printed.

AI: Was there anything else you were trying to accomplish that you recall at that time -- that you were trying to accomplish through your writing in the Pacific Citizen at that time? You were already in Puyallup. The removal had been effected.

BH: Gee, I don't remember what I wrote specifically, but I think my intention was two-fold. One to express myself, and one to try and maintain morale. "We are being mistreated, but don't give up." And I was only a kid in my middle twenties. [Laughs]

AI: So you had quite a bit of outrage.

BH: Oh, yeah.

AI: You were expressing that. And clearly from -- to me, in reading your writings at that time, you've -- it sounded as though you felt perfectly within your rights as an American...

BH: Yes.

AI: ...to express yourself in this manner.

BH: Yes. I believed in the freedom of the press. And I believe that as long as they let us publish it, publish the PC, we should be free to write what we thought.

AI: So although some of your rights and liberties had been taken away, you continued to use the ones that you had...

BH: Yes.

AI: ...remaining to you. Well, then you were given very short notice. I think you wrote, approximately four hours' notice to pack up...

BH: Probably less.

AI: ...to leave to go to Heart Mountain, Wyoming.

BH: Yes.

AI: And -- let's see. That, that was in August, August of 1942, and you went only with your wife and your so -- your young son, Mike.

BH: Yes.

AI: When you first arrived at Heart Mountain, what did you see, and what was your reaction to that?

BH: I saw only desolation. The camp was still under construction. The place was overrun with carpenters and tractors and dust. Middle of the Wyoming desert. And I thought, "Jesus Christ, they're going to put 10,000 people here." Now, there were two blocks that were already occupied. An advanced group from Pomona Assembly Center had come to Heart Mountain a day or two before I got there. They were the advance crew, helping to set up the kitchens and preparing for the others who would come later. I didn't know a soul. And one reason for sending me there was that I had, had no constituency. I would be among strangers. But it was dusty and dirty and desolate and disheartening.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2001 Densho. All Rights Reserved.