<Begin Segment 30>

TI: Well, and then they only had you there for two or three days at Fort Vancouver, and then you had to go back east, because you still had to write this report about the bomb survey.

HH: Well, I didn't know that I was slated to do that. We had to go back because I was still in the service and I had to go back to my base which was the air force base, and then report back that I'm back here. Because I was not discharged yet, I was still in the service.

TI: So you weren't sure what you were going to do, but when you did get back there, you found out that they wanted you to write this report?

HH: Yes, that was assigned that this would be, because I thought that I have to go back there that way to get discharged anyway, but there was no thought about discharge or anything like that at the time. I had to go back to Washington, D.C., and then whatever, but they assigned me to go to the government printing office and work on the report, the final report of the bombing, or about the survey. But included in there was the... there were several other publications connected with the report, and one of 'em was -- which was the main thing -- was the Hiroshima one. It had a big map of where the target was and such, so that's when I learned more about what kind of situation it was, and in that report, I think we reported thirty thousand or so killed in various ways. So I learned a lot about what happened, and a little more about it, working on this final report.

TI: How about the part that you worked on? Do you recall any of the findings from the survey that were included in this report?

HH: No, no, I did not get -- I don't know why -- but I don't recall working actually, I think it was probably in some of the reports, other reports, because there were quite a few smaller publications relating to the bombing survey.

TI: So what kind of writing were you doing, then, during this period? When you said you worked on the report, what did you have to do?

HH: Well, I more or less edited the thing, so I did not do too much original writing of the report itself. But I tried to get a copy of it several years later when I found out that there was a report like that published by the United States printing, government printing office. I sent in a request to buy some, and these were the reports that I do have a copy of those, but I don't recall one pamphlet or whatever, booklet, that was written about just the morale division that I was assigned to.

TI: Okay. So while you were in D.C. writing this report, your wife was also there with you in Washington, D.C. I'm curious, when the two of you were in Washington, D.C., do you recall any sort of excursions or small trips that the two of you took while you were on the East Coast?

HH: Oh, yes. I have to backtrack just a minute. When I went back to D.C., I was working at the government printing, but I was living off the post. I had to because there was no army or air force facility that I could stay, so I was also just living by myself. And then I think around about March or so, I had a chance to have my wife and daughter come out with me, because I didn't know how long I have to stay before I got discharged from the military. So finally I was able to get a chance to have her come out, so I sent a telegram to her in Seattle that if she'll come on a certain day, I think it was March 20th or something like that, I finally met her at the Chicago train station. And I wrote to her that I'll be coming in on a certain train from Washington, D.C. So we met in the Chicago train station, and then from there we took another train, local train, to Rockford, Illinois, where my brother-in-law was already living. And I left my car with him, so I went to get the car so I can drive there, and drove all the way up to Washington, D.C.

TI: And so with that car in D.C., because you were there for months, did you have any interesting trips while you were...

HH: Well, the thing was that I had a chance to take them to all the sightseeing places and zoos and whatever, because I had a daughter. But most of our trips or whatever it was, they would have concerts, army band or navy band or here and there around the Washington, D.C. area. So that was more or less, it was free -- [laughs] -- and also it was more or less... how can I say this? Because except for just weekends or something like that, I had to be still working, getting the report all done, so I remember going out to the Arlington Cemetery. So I did have a chance to take them around here and there.

TI: Okay, I just wanted to ask that.

<End Segment 30> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.