<Begin Segment 12>

BK: Okay, so let's go back to the Puyallup time. When you first got there, what were your impressions of Puyallup?

MH: I thought, "Wow, this is sure different." Because we went into the gate, and it was all barbed wire and we were in Area D, which is right on the fairgrounds. They gave us an apartment in the middle of the fairgrounds, and it was just a long row of these chicken coop looking things. There was, the six of us would be living in one little room. And the one thing that impressed me most of all, was the white bags they gave us to put straw in, to sleep in. And, at that time, I got hay fever, and my mother didn't know what it was. Because every time I'd get up in the morning, I'd be sneezing and sneezing. So, she finally went to somebody and found out that's what it was. So they were going to get me a regular mattress, but I never got it. I slept on the straw.

BK: You say there were six of you. Now, who were they?

MH: They were Ak, Ken, Ted, me, Mom and Dad.

BK: So Sho was already, your brother Sho...

MH: He went in the service, yes, in '41, the summer of '41. His friend was volunteering, so he volunteered to go with him.

BK: I see. And your sister was already...

MH: Married and living in National, which is just the foot of Mt. Rainier. And so, when the war broke out, she had to sell everything. They wanted to go with the family, of course, so they sold everything there. She says that was the hardest thing for her, because the sawmill paid rather well, I guess, for that time, and she had, they had a car, and she also had bought a new refrigerator. And so, she said to have to give it up, like for a few dollars, but they wanted to come to Seattle. They found a man that would drive them from National to Seattle for $50 with what they could carry. The only thing wrong is, when they got to the Duwamish cutoff, they wouldn't let 'em cross it, because Boeing was right down the road. So they made 'em go all the way back to Renton, down through Kirkland, and come around through Bothell and up to Seattle again.

BK: And this is for her to join...

MH: Yes. Join us.

BK: ...you people before you actually left for Puyallup.

MH: Yes, so we could go as a family group.

BK: Did they have roadblocks, or did they...

MH: Yeah, they had roadblocks she said. So when they got to the Duwamish Bridge, they said they can't go, because they're Japanese.

BK: Was the person who drove them was, obviously, was Caucasian?

MH: Yes, somebody at the sawmill.

BK: But because he had Japanese passengers...

MH: Right.

BK: ...they were not allowed.

MH: Allowed to cross.

BK: I see.

MH: So they had to go through Renton and that way.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.