<Begin Segment 35>

BK: More than fifty years have gone by since the end of the war. As you think back on your internment experiences, what were some of best times you can remember from that experience?

MH: You know, I can't even remember any "best" times. I think coming home was a nice time. Getting on the train, and my sister packed a lunch, and thinking, "I'm gonna go home." I think in the end, all of that was -- I was going home to Mom and Dad. And although we slept, we were staying at a place called Vancouver Hotel on Seventh, Seventh and Stewart. And I think it was only two rooms and a little kitchen. And yet I was so happy to come home to it. And it had cockroaches I had never seen before. [Laughs]

BK: But actually, you had been living away for probably...

MH: Uh-huh.

BK: ...three years, or so, on your own. So that was coming home.

MH: It was, I think that was the main thing, is come home.

BK: What were some of the worst long-term effects of internment, on you?

MH: On me, I think it's, I've always been insecure. I mean, you wouldn't think so, by the way I am, but I always get this feeling, you know, "Do I fit in?" Or I don't want to say the wrong thing, or... to this day, I have that feeling. Sometimes I won't say anything, because I'm afraid I'm gonna say the wrong thing. Mother always taught us, you know, to be careful of what we said. To this day, a lot of times I won't say anything, even though I, to myself, I think I should say it, but I don't.

BK: In what ways do you think internment changed you?

MH: Well, I saw a lot more of the country. I met a lot of different people. I don't think I would be afraid to do anything anymore. I mean, I would do it, I might not like it, whatever came up in my life, or anything, but... I think it made a lot of us stand up on our own, that we wouldn't have done before. That's what I think, that we're more well-rounded, and I feel I am, too. I, although I have this insecurity once in a while, I'll get out and do something I probably would have never done before.

<End Segment 35> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.