<Begin Segment 29>

TI: So let's pick it up there. So from Japan, you came all the way to the West Coast, and I think you ended up initially near Portland by Fort Vancouver?

HH: Yes.

TI: So that's, and Fort Vancouver is really, from Seattle, just a few hours away. It's not too far away from Seattle.

HH: Three, three hours.

TI: Yeah, about three hours. So, but then you're on duty, so you can't really go to Seattle. So instead, you mentioned how you tried to call your wife. So why don't you describe what it was like calling your wife and what that was like.

HH: Yes, this is Fort Vancouver barracks, they call it, in Vancouver, Washington, which is across the Columbia River from Portland. And it's right on the Columbia River on the Vancouver side. And this is where they had us stay, because this was a military base. And we were able to get on the telephone, but we had to take turns. And so I waited a long time until I was able to get on the telephone, and called back to Seattle. And I knew that they were coming back from the relocation camp, Minidoka, and all the camps were being closed anyway. And they were now relocated, and people that want to come back to the coast area were able to come back. And my wife's family had already come back to Seattle, and so I got their telephone number and I was able to call. And naturally my wife answered, and then she put my daughter Sachi on the telephone.

TI: Sachi, this is January 1946, she was born in 1943?

HH: Yes.

TI: So she's, what, about two-and-a-half or so years old?

HH: Yes.

TI: Okay, so she's two-and-a-half, and then what happened?

HH: Well, I was very surprised when she talked to me in Japanese language, not English. And it kind of shocked me because I haven't seen her more recently, periodically I did stop in at the Minidoka camp if I'm going down to, say, California or something like that en route, I would stop. But because she was with my mother-in-law's family, I think she picked up all her Japanese.

TI: So it was your wife's mother that was probably taking care of her a lot, and she was teaching her or talking to her in Japanese, and that's what she was learning. So her first language was Japanese, not English.

HH: Yes.

TI: Now, how did that make you feel? Was that kind of funny or was it...

HH: No, it just surprised me that she spoke Japanese to me.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.