Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Mae Kanazawa Hara Interview
Narrator: Mae Kanazawa Hara
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: July 15, 2004
Densho ID: denshovh-hmae-01-0010

<Begin Segment 10>

AI: Let me... let me ask you a little bit more about, in some ways -- in your memory, it seems to be rushing by very fast, the time.

MH: Fast. I know, I'm going back and forth, and I'm not very chronological.

AI: But I wanted to ask about that time in-between. After Pearl Harbor had been bombed, but before you actually were forced to leave, as you were saying earlier, Iwao was helping many of the families with their businesses, and what was going through your mind at this time in December of 1941?

MH: Well, my mind was filled with what to do, with not only our two houses, my mother's house, and my, Iwao's parent's house. Each, they all had a house. What to do with (...) all the things in it? So that was what we were greatly concerned with. We rented both the back house and our house to Caucasian people, so that was no problem. I think we rented both of the parents' houses, if I remember correctly. And my mother -- oh, and our good friends came and took a lot of our precious things like our silver and then stored them with us, like our camera equipment and silver and the good china we packed and they took 'em. And my mother did the same, but (when) she went through the house (again, she picked) up other things. She thought she'll put 'em in a trunk, and then put it in one of the (...) smaller rooms (upstairs) and lock it. So she gathered up all the precious things, things that I remember: a lovely ceramic old man and an old woman, whose heads just bob up and down, a lovely piece of art; crystal Mount Fuji, clear crystal. I mean, those are a few of the things I remember that she put in the trunk and locked the door thinking it was safe. Well, after the war, the government shipped the trunk to my folks and when she opened it, there was nothing in it. And all the other good things that was locked in the room (...). Different people who rented the house walked off with (them), so we never (saw them again). So that's the story there. But fortunately, the things that our friends have taken we were able to have, so we're very fortunate in that respect (...).

AI: I heard that some people were very worried about having too many Japanese things or... books.

MH: Yes, they, they --

AI: Or... did you, were you worried? Did you get rid of anything?

MH: Especially books. (...) A lot of them were burning things, and I'm sure we burned a lot of things we should have liked to have kept. Records and whatnot, but it all went into the fire, especially textbooks and things of that kind. And we had lots and lots of that kind of things. We did burn up a lot of things we shouldn't have. [Laughs]

AI: Well, tell me about the feeling of that time that, that caused, that caused you to have --

MH: The anxiety more, not knowing exactly what was going to happen, I think was the hardest thing. If you knew if you were going to do this or that, then we would plan accordingly, but not knowing... working in a vacuum (...) made it very, very hard. And... well, you can imagine these young mothers with children whose husband was picked up, (...) it was really a trying experience. I had my hands full of taking care of all five of them (...). My fourth brother was the only one who (stayed) behind, who took care of all the Jackson Fish, the business contacts. And the other brothers got out, you see. (...)

AI: Tell me about your other brothers leaving the area.

MH: Well, they... Min (...), my first brother was through college, so he found a job. He was an accountant also, and he found a job and helped get my youngest brother, who was a senior in high school, get through high school. And my other brother, Hank, was an architectural student, and, oh, he's the one that went with Bill Shimasaki and one other person and visited all the Big Ten colleges in the, in the Middle West to get acceptance. One was in the field of mechanical engineering. Bill was in (that) field. And the other friend was in the field of bacteriology, very outstanding student, and my brother was in the field of architecture. But none of the (big) ten (colleges) would accept them, because there (were many) army programs, navy programs, and those Niseis who were already in the colleges were permitted to stay, but they would not accept new ones (...). Well, fortunately for this bacteriologist, University of Cincinnati had a need for this particular field, so they said, "We will hire you to teach (...), and you may continue your work on your PhD in your field (...)." Bill and my brother, came back to University of Nebraska, because they would accept them. So Bill finished in mechanical engineer and my brother in the field of architect. So after they graduated, Bill got a job with some department in irrigation or flood control in Wisconsin, and Hank went down to Illinois, Chicago, and got a job with... no. He went to New York and got a job with this famous architecture and his work on his PhD was his work on the Seagram Building in New York, and that's how he finished his master's work. And I think he got a job there, too, until he came back.

AI: So as you explained earlier, your brothers were able to leave the West Coast during the so-called "voluntary evacuation."

MH: Yeah, voluntary, the three brothers were. But Bob, my fourth brother, stayed behind to clean up the, my father's business, which was down at the Jackson Fish and Oyster Company.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.