<Begin Segment 10>

TI: You know, there was an incident in camp that, you might have been a little young for this, but the administration came out with a "loyalty questionnaire."

LH: May I interrupt?

TI: Sure.

LH: The most interesting aspect of that whole thing is, every document in every book I've ever read said, "for those seventeen and older" to sign this questionnaire. I have documentary proof from the government, which I obtained, that shows I think I was fourteen or fifteen, and my younger sister, who was two years younger, signed the same documents.

TI: Oh, interesting. So even though you were underage...

LH: That's correct.

TI: ...they had you go through this.

LH: Absolutely.

TI: And did they, was this signed by a guardian also, like your parents?

LH: No, no, I have the document, just shows that, my name, signed, and a separate document that my younger sister had signed.

TI: Well, to, to answer this, then, did you get any guidance, or how did you decide to figure this out?

LH: I can only imagine, you know, from the family and from friends, because we all signed what the majority did, I guess, "yes-yes."

TI: Now, was it a very controversial or difficult situation for people to fill this out, do you recall?

LH: Well, it was controversial, but not like it was apparently in Manzanar and some of the other camps. 'Cause as you probably know, we had more volunteers from Minidoka into the army than any other camp. And in fact, Block 10 was only a half a block, 'cause half of it was the elementary school, one of the two elementary schools. And yet even though we were half a block, we had more volunteers for the army than any other block. And I think we had more killed from our block as well, than any other block.

TI: So I'm going to jump ahead. I'd love to spend more time, but I want to get to the postwar. So tell me, after Minidoka, what did you and your family do? Where did you go after Minidoka?

LH: Well, fortunately, we had this house that my father owned, then of course, you know, how it was before the war, it was in the name of my oldest sister. And by then, my oldest sister after the war was living up in Magnolia Bluff waiting for her husband to come back from, he was in the Military Intelligence Service in the Philippines and Japan and Hokkaido. My two older brothers were in the army, and waiting for them to come back. And even though I graduated from Hunt High in three years, I wanted to have the experience of high school life in America, so to speak, in Seattle, so I went to Franklin, because I was living in Mount Baker at that time. And the only other Nikkei of our class of five hundred were Kaz Suyama, who's now deceased. His older brother Nobi is also deceased, but I know Nobi's sister is attending this session. I'm sorry, Nobi's, Nobi's wife Katie or Katherine, or whatever her name is. And Mits Kawachi, in fact, I embarrassed Mits... I embarrassed Mits because when I met his wife here in 2001 reunion, I said, "Oh, I remember, Mits, how I allowed you and Kaz to join me and my date for our high school prom, because you guys didn't have dates." I had dated a girl named Sodie Nakashima, and I don't know Sodie's real name, probably Sadako, I don't know where she is now. But I embarrassed Mits by bringing this up.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.