<Begin Segment 11>

AI: And before the break, you were telling me about the "voluntary evacuation" period. And I wanted to ask you also, you know, before Pearl Harbor was bombed, as you mentioned, Iwao's business was affected by the relations between Japan and the U.S. --

MH: Uh-huh.

AI: -- even before Pearl Harbor. And I was wondering, did you and Iwao have some concern or some thought that perhaps the U.S. might enter the war against Japan and that there might be some, a conflict that you would be facing?

MH: Well, we were afraid that there'd be a war, because, see, connected with the import firm, of course, that thing terminated immediately because we couldn't make any contact, you see. So we just felt that it was just time. But by that time he was so hands full with taking care of the other thing, which was a blessing. And so he was working hard on that. In fact, the demands were so great that he hired my brother and one other person to help him. He had two other helpers, because people were coming to him for advice and what to do, and... and which was wonderful, because it, at least it didn't have to wait until the last minute. So a lot of... so that was what he was doing. So we couldn't very well pack up and leave like some of the others did. So he... and then we thought because he had already a job in Spokane, that we would be permitted to go, but that didn't turn out to be true, because the army just would not give any reason why they wouldn't give us this extension. And they... and from what I gather, if the battle at Midway had gone from bad to worse -- because I think that was a turning point of our war situation in the Pacific area -- if it had gone worse, then I think the army was planning to evacuate the second 500 mile inland, which would have included Pullman and Spokane, and so I guess that was one of the reasons. But fortunately that did not happen, because the Midway battle was won by us, which helped, made a difference.

AI: Well, so then in the meantime, as you were explaining earlier, you were handling taking care of the houses, getting things in storage. And when was it that you realized that... that Iwao was not going to be allowed to go to Spokane? What went through your mind at that time?

MH: Well, well, of course, there's no other alternative. If we couldn't get to Spokane, we had to go to camp. It was that... so we just went.

AI: Tell, tell me about that, actually leaving Seattle.

MH: Well, we just left. I think on a certain day we were supposed to meet down at a certain area, and the buses were all lined up, and they had our list. And as our names were called we (got) in and bused... of course, we didn't know where we were going. We first went to the Puyallup Assembly Center and we were there until the Minidoka camp (in Idaho) was completed, which was several months later. So that was it.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.