<Begin Segment 54>

TI: So I want to ask, when you got to Minidoka, what was it like for your wife when she saw her family?

HH: Well, we were in a, there was a road dividing, and we were assigned to Block 7 and they were Block 4. And then the hospital, base hospital, was in that Block 4. So the apartment that was open was Block 7, but it was right close. So it was easy for us to get together with them.

TI: But what was it like the first time? Because here you and particularly your wife have not seen her family...

HH: Oh, yes.

TI: ...ever since she left, ever since that time you picked her up in Seattle and drove her down. So months and months and months have passed, and you talked about how close she was to her family. And here she was coming back with a baby daughter, and I'm just curious what the reunion was like.

HH: Oh, really, it was something. But by that time, we had already wrote that we'll be going to Minidoka, so they knew that we were coming out.

TI: So they were waiting for you probably when you got there.

HH: Yes.

TI: And so what was that like? Who was there to, when the families met, who was there?

HH: Well, the whole family, her sisters.

TI: And so was there lots of screaming and joy or crying?

HH: [Laughs] I can't remember all that, and then we did have to carry my daughter. And then they were not outside, because they didn't know when we came into Block 7, but we did go and walk over to say that we're now in Block 7, right across the street.

TI: So was your wife happy to be at Minidoka?

HH: Oh, yes, yes. But then by that time she didn't have to stay in the hospital, but the hospital was nearby so that's why it was very good that they weren't too far away from the base hospital.

TI: Plus, I imagine her family was there to help her also.

HH: Oh yes, because taking care of the baby and everything else. And then also they did have, my sister-in-law, she did have another son who was born also in camp.

TI: Okay, so she had someone else to raise a child...

HH: Yes, so they were, by that time, they were able to walk around a little bit. So they would play outside the barracks.

TI: Good.

<End Segment 54> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.