<Begin Segment 22>

TI: So after you had two boys, then pretty soon the war started.

BH: Oh, yes.

TI: Why don't you describe what you heard, or how you heard about...

BH: Well, Paul used to read the newspaper, and he knew all this, but he didn't tell me about, too much about what's going on. He said we had trouble with China or something at one time, and this and that, but that's about all.

TI: So he was reading Japanese newspapers?

BH: That's all the Salt Lake people used to get. No Japanese anything on the radio.

TI: And so how did you hear about the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

BH: Well, he used to read about those things, and then they'd start talking on the radio, battery radio, hear about this, and then it was getting kind of bad. He'd tell us, "There might be a war."

TI: So when December 7, 1941, came, did you hear about the war on that day?

BH: We heard about it on the radio before that, that's before somebody warned us. So that Sunday morning, Paul was looking out the window, there was a railroad boss that was in charge of the railway around there, we saw his car parked outside and he was sitting in there. So we said, "What's going on?" So Paul went out there, then he came back and he says, "There's war in Japan." And that's the first time we heard. And then after that, everybody was nervous, we didn't know what was going to happen to us. But that was about December, and then April -- oh, they still kept on working on the railroad 'til Lincoln's birthday. And so they thought, well, they were safe, and so it was okay. Then that's what we thought, then all of a sudden, I don't know when it was that all the Japanese foremen... see, Japanese foreman was in every section. And all the boys that worked 'em, anyway, I don't know what they were, Caucasian people, but they mostly came from Oklahoma and Arkansas and places like that. Just like in that story about, John Steinbeck's. All the cars came west and they could see that there were cars that were all piled up with stuff, just like in the story. And, of course, the Japanese were all foremen.

TI: And so because the Japanese were foremen, then they were over these other Caucasian workers. Was there resentment?

BH: Mexicans, yeah.

TI: Was there resentment towards the Japanese?

BH: Oh, yeah. After that, everybody in the whole town, there were some places they wouldn't sell us groceries. But there was one, in Green River, there was one, it was Piggly-Wiggly I guess they called it, they had a supermarket. So they felt sorry for us and they says, "Well, anytime you need groceries, just come and charge it to us." So they were very nice. So the majority of the stores were very nice, except in the drugstore. We had a drugstore across the, right in the little village of Green River. Paul tried, Paul wanted them to learn to speak Japanese, so he'd talk. So they did say a few things in Japanese, and Paul would come in the store with us, and he starts asking in Japanese what this is and this and that. So we said, "Shh, don't talk Japanese anymore." So that was the last. We never let him talk Japanese after that.

TI: So your oldest son was learning Japanese, but after the war broke out...

BH: Yeah, no more.

TI: ...you told him not to speak Japanese anymore. And so you mentioned the Piggly-Wiggly, so they were kind, but there were other people that weren't so kind?

BH: Oh, yeah. There were a lot of people that wouldn't even sell it to us. One day we just bought a whole... 'cause we were gonna be, can't go too many places, so we went to Safeway, I think it was, and they used to, Paul used to get his railroad check, you know, his wages. So we took the check and went to Safeway store in Rock Springs, which is the next town, which is a bigger town. And we bought a whole top, the carriage thing was full of stuff that we need, like canned milk and can of everything. And when we went to pay, they said, "Sorry, but we can't take your check." I said, "Well, that's the only thing I've got." And he said, "Well, still, we can't take it." So we couldn't buy any groceries. So we just said, "Okay," then we just went out and left all the groceries there all piled up. [Laughs]

TI: And this happened after December 7th?

BH: Oh, yeah.

TI: Okay, so even though it was a good check, it was a railroad check, they wouldn't take it.

BH: No, they wouldn't take it.

TI: Because you were Japanese.

BH: Uh-huh. So that went on for a long time. Then they used to give us compensation check, Omaha, I guess, the headquarters for the railroad. So they sent for all the people, I think it was thirty dollars or something like that, which was supposed to be used for groceries.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.