<Begin Segment 12>

AI: Tell me about your, about the Puyallup camp. When --

MH: The (...) Puyallup assembly camp was the fairground where all these stock shows and whatnot, and some of the areas were underneath the stadium and some of them were in these animal stalls that were embedded with straw and what... and they were all cleaned, I mean, at least it was cleaned out. But the odor of the -- [laughs] -- still lingered, and dampness. So it was... and those were all segmented into little, what should... I almost said "cells," but apartments for, depending on the size of the family. So it was not a very pleasant situation. And, of course, they had a few, we happened to land in one of the barracks on the outside. (...)

AI: And was that you and Iwao, or were you together with other family members?

MH: No, just my husband and I and my brother, Bob. Three of us that were left behind. And then from there we went to Minidoka, and by that time (forty-four) blocks of barracks were from one end of the Snake River to the other, a little less than five miles.

AI: Well, let me ask you about what was your reaction to, to being rounded up like this and put into the camp? Because by that time you had already had quite a career in music, you had a responsible position, responsibilities at the church, you and Iwao were very active in the community and well-accepted as, as citizens.

MH: Well, as I said before, the fact that the minute I entered camp I was asked to go up to the headquarters, so I really didn't have a chance because my next assignment was this, you see. So I had to get, my mind had to think about how to execute the program under the circumstances (...). So I think I spent more time thinking about that than about this other. I couldn't be bothered with... which is not a good way to... and we knew basically it was wrong, this whole thing, but just by sitting and arguing about it wouldn't make any difference. I mean, we couldn't do anything, and so some of us felt, well, let's make the most of it and make it as pleasant as we know how. So we all tackled our program in our respective field with that in mind, which helped. And I think this was perpetuated by this Mr. George L. Townsend, who had this humanitarian attitude toward this whole issue. And he just closed the government books with all the rules and regulations and took the most humane approach to each situation as it came up. And not only that, he kept in touch with the community of the main issues that came up that bothered the people (...). Had open meetings where people could come and express, spout their complaints or whatnot, and he would answer them in a positive way. And... which helped, I think, vent all this hidden anti feeling, where in other camps these all broke out into actual riots, killing, and shooting. (...) They had to call (the police) so we did not have any of that, which made it very nice. But it was not easy, I'm sure. Especially at the time when the recruiting for the volunteer group, you know.

AI: Well, let me, before --

MH: That was really hard. Well, several of the parents just said, "Well, why should you volunteer when the government put you in this kind of situation?" Some of them could not agree with their parents. They had to flee, get out of the family circle, because of the strong feeling. And we had to protect some of the boys in particular, who could not, of course, there were others that agreed and blessed them and gave them their blessing when they volunteered. So it was very (difficult) the way the question was presented. And, of course, they changed it. But the whole reasoning was just out of kilter and created (confusion). (...) I remember a couple of the young people that I've talked to that had to almost flee for their life from their family, because they thought they were crazy to respond. But (...) I can't help but admire the whole attitude of the volunteers. And, of course, they made quite a record and all that.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.