<Begin Segment 9>

DN: Did, what age did you become aware that people were prejudiced against the Japanese?

EH: Well, I think... probably, and I was working in the Port Blakely store, and there was one Japanese fellow that always come in the store, and he loved to fish salmon. And a lot of people said that he was a retired Japanese admiral, which was false. And the guy you mentioned over here, sour grapes.

DN: Lambert Schuyler.

EH: Yeah. He, after the war, when they were starting to come back, that's when we really heard about him. And we had another gentleman that I admired because he took care of the Boy Scouts. There was a, I was in Troop 498, and Jerry and the Winslow kids were in Troop 497, and we had a place called, well, it was a, a scout camp. And we'd go out there and Major Hopkins would take care of everybody. And we always thought he was just a great guy. Well then, after the war, why, he was a dissenter. Didn't want 'em back on the Island. And Schuyler was another one.

DN: When, but you didn't really encounter it, even through -- there was no real segregation on the Island or anything like that? Everybody mingled. How about your own parents? Did they ever...

EH: Oh, hey, they, it was great. I think everybody in our community were all immigrants -- our parents. Let's put it that way. And the Japanese were, were immigrants, also. And I never knew of any animosity against them, or anything, until just before the war, and then there were incidents, but when it boils down to everything, there was not -- well, when they took them away, they took away, the FBI came in and took away, I don't remember how many husbands, or fathers. And I believe they took 'em to Montana. I don't know where. And they were eventually let go, and there was no charges brought against anybody. But the, the one guy that really stood up for the Japanese, and that was Walt Woodward. He was the publisher of the Bainbridge Review, and there's a school named after him on the Island, and we even had his wife as a substitute schoolteacher. And he, he got Paul Ohtaki to write letters to the Review, so he, so Walt could publish 'em. So we, we kept information going, and I used to write to Jerry, and he'd write back to me, and then when I went in the service, we lost contact, and then I didn't see him again until probably about 1946, '47. 'Cause when he came home, he went, got his own store up somewheres in Seattle, and was over there for a few years, and then he came back to the Island.

DN: You say there were some incidents before the war broke out, that...

EH: Well, I can remember my folks always took the P-I, and there was big headlines about a radio being found on Bainbridge Island. Well, I think it turned out to be nothing, but it was still headlines. And other than that, it was, kids were in school and played ball, and, you know...

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.