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TI: So Gordon, we're going to start. But before we start today's interview, I just wanted to review where we were, where we stopped at the last interview. Yeah. Today is December 5, 1999. I'm Tom Ikeda, the primary interviewer. To my right is Alice Ito. And at camera is Dana Hoshide. And this is the third interview that we're doing with you. But the second interview, where we ended up was, we ended up May 1942, and this was right after the, you turned yourself in to the FBI. And you were in, at this point, in the King County Jail.

And so I thought where we would start, is to actually talk about some of the visitors you -- you had in the King County Jail, because in the course of the first five months, while you're waiting for trial, you had several prominent visitors visit you while you were in jail. And so I thought we would start first with, with Floyd Schmoe. And if you could just say a little bit about Floyd and who he was. And first start -- starting off who he was in terms of locally, some of the things that he was doing, and then talking about sort of the, the personal connection with you.

GH: Floyd Schmoe was a World War I pacifist, conscientious objector and a pacifist, and a native -- well, native-born I was going to say, but he's really born as a Quaker. We make a distinction, those who came in, like I did, convinced Quaker, or those who were born to Quaker family. He was one of those. And in Wichita, Kansas, and then he got his final degree in forestry in the, in University of Washington. So he ended up living in Seattle. He was the father of the person who became my wife in my first marriage. And he was, to many non-Quakers, he was "Mr. Quaker" to the outsider. He was very active in social activities and projects. And as a conscientious objector in Europe during World War I, he participated in a number of activities like medical corps that was independent of the military.

TI: Now, how did you come to meet him?

GH: Well, he was on the faculty at University of Washington, Forestry. And also when I was a, a student and among the leader group organizing speakers and advisors for others interested in conscientious objector position, we would contact different people of, among whom were Quakers. And so in that process, I ran into him. And then later some of us, including my roommate and I, Howard Scott and I, would frequently visit the groups from which our speakers came. And so we found ourselves visiting the Quaker group among others. And then eventually we found ourselves becoming relatively regular attenders at the Quakers, which led to the question they raised, "Have you thought about membership?"

TI: Good. So you -- and we went over that last interview. So while you're at the King County Jail, how often did you see Floyd?

GH: Well, Floyd was a very close personal friend and advisor, so I saw him frequently. And he would come in very regularly. So that would -- and, and was, considered himself, and I think he was, a very close personal advisor.

TI: And what kind of things did you talk about when, when he came?

GH: All kinds of things, but in, in this particular situation, he was very active in looking after the concerns that many contacts he made among the Japanese community, following up with some of their concerns, if it had to do with looking up information for them in Seattle area. I got to know him closer as an employee. When the Quakers decided they wanted to do something organizationally, they thought that maybe one good way would be to organize a branch of the American Friends Service Committee that started during World War I and continued during the depression with other minority groups and so on, needs, earthquake and other emergency projects, they would send a team in to help, that sort of thing. And with World War II, the biggest problem in Seattle socially was what was happening to the Japanese Americans. So they formed a regional office with the help of the main office in Philadelphia.

TI: These were the, the Quakers?

GH: Yeah. And Floyd was the first acting secretary.

TI: Right. And another prominent Quaker that came to visit you was Arthur Barnett. Could you talk a little bit about him and your relationship with him?

GH: Well, Arthur was a lawyer. And prior to the war in the Depression days of the 1930s, he put in a couple of long stints working for the federal government in their Civilian Conservation Corps program, CCC, and Work Projects Administration, WPA, with people taking care of erstwhile unemployed people with worthwhile projects. Instead of giving just money, they had projects that could be useful for communities or up in the forests or something. And so he helped organize a lot of that kind of activity, and had just returned to do something in the field of law for which he just got his degree, prior to doing these emergency jobs for the federal government. So he be -- he came on the scene. And I knew of them because I knew his wife through the YWCA, University of Washington YWCA 'cause our YM, that I was a member of, and the YW worked together very closely in terms of speaker programs and that sort of thing, and some of the projects. So I, I had met Art Barnett through his wife, and been a frequent visitor to their home after that because we, we kind of hit it off personally. And in due course, when they had their first son, he was named Gordon. Now, I don't know if I was the sole reason, but I was one of the reasons for the name being picked. And I used to baby-sit him as one of my employment activities as a part-time student.

TI: Well, you must have made a really strong impression on the Barnetts for them to, to name their son after you. There really must have been a really strong relationship.

GH: Well, yeah. It -- even if I weren't the only reason for being named Gordon, it was, it was a warm feeling that I felt. And I felt very close to them all the way through.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.