<Begin Segment 28>

TI: Let's go back to right before you were leaving Japan to come back to the United States. Prior to this time, you had information that possibly one or both of your younger sisters might be coming to Japan. And so you wrote letters to them while you were in Japan sort of telling them what Japan was like. Can you describe what you wrote to your sisters?

HH: The thing that I recall now is that at that time, when I went to Japan, I knew something about the fact that what I probably would see will be more firsthand, the bombing and all that. I knew that there were firebombs and everything else, in Tokyo and every place. But I didn't know how bad. And also, back in the relocation centers, there were a lot of rumors and everything else, all kinds of rumors about it isn't as bad and all those things. So when I finally found out that I'll be going to Japan, I thought maybe when I get there I will see what the conditions are and maybe I can tell my sisters whom I left when I went to Minidoka.

TI: Because at this point, your sisters were still at Tule Lake.

HH: Yes.

TI: And large numbers of people in the segregation camp at Tule Lake were talking about or planning to go back to Japan. And you're saying that the rumor was that things were not that bad in Japan, so that's why a lot of them were thinking that they would go back to Japan. And you thought you would go to Japan, when you were in Japan you would really see what it was like, and then communicate back to your sister.

HH: Yes, this goes back to these "no-no" questions, "no-no," "yes-no," or whatever, loyalty questionnaire. And I knew that my two sisters were married, or eventually married Kibei, and so they were a little more... maybe I should describe what Kibei is or Nisei --

TI: No, that's okay, because we'll have it described. So there was a, so you thought there was a good chance that they might come to Japan. So describe what you wrote in your letters in describing Japan.

HH: Well, when I first got into Tokyo and saw the devastation of Tokyo Station and such, where we were right near the emperor's palace grounds and everything, and I walked around the so-called main road, which everybody knows, and if you're going to Japan you go to Ginza-dori, which is Ginza Way, which is more of the business areas and all the stores. Well, it was just all devastated. There was nothing standing, really. But in Tokyo there were more concrete or some were granite stone type of construction, hotels and such.

TI: So when you saw all this, when you walked around and saw it for the first time, was it what you expected, or was it worse than you expected?

HH: It was much worse than what I had expected. Although around the imperial palace and the new buildings, big office buildings and such were more or less prepared for earthquake and things like that, the buildings were more modern, you wouldn't even know whether you're in L.A. or anyplace like here, Tokyo especially. But the outskirts area or even Tokyo Station was hit also, and also with firebomb, the incendiary bomb that they dropped, that fire razed through.

TI: Right, so the area was devastated. How about the people? Did you see very many Japanese when you were walking around, and what was that like?

HH: Well, what surprised me was that all around, right by the Tokyo Station, they had salvaged whatever tin roof or any kind of material that they can gather, they had like a shantytown. People just living, it was terrible to see that, but you didn't see too many people walking around or anything, but even like in Tokyo Station, on the outside and I presume also inside, but homeless kind of people that you might see over here with the cardboard boxes and such to sleep on. They were everywhere. I was surprised, really, how bad it was in Tokyo when I first got there.

TI: And so you described all this in your letters to your two sisters.

HH: Yes, that this is what I saw, and it's really, really terrible here. They were having a hard time getting food, produce and everything else, and I said, "This is no place to be coming back."

TI: Did you ever get a response from any of your sisters, from these letters?

HH: No, because later, after we got together, I did ask my sister, the older one of the sisters, Yaeko, that, "I wrote a letter to you and Mutsumi," the other sister, what I saw, and not a place to come to, go to right now. "But the best thing, in case you were to come back, register with the American embassy that you're an American citizen and such, and you accompanied your husbands," because they were already married and such. "This is what you should do."

TI: Okay, that's good. But as you say, the sisters didn't receive the letters, and I think your youngest sister, Mutsumi, ended up taking the Gripsholm with her husband and going to Japan. But you never did get a chance to see them.

HH: No.

TI: And instead, you came back to the United States.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.