<Begin Segment 20>

MA: And when did you graduate from high school? What year was that?

GH: 1949.

MA: And you graduated from high school in Hawaii?

GH: Uh-huh. Only my sister Lillian is the one that graduated in camp. The rest of us all graduated here. And then we went away in '51 and went to Chicago.

MA: And that's when you just, that's when your father decided to move the family to Chicago?

GH: Uh-huh, and he opened a restaurant there, in Chicago. Japanese restaurant again.

MA: And did your whole family go to Chicago?

GH: Uh-huh. There were only three of us left by that that time, because my brother was married, my sister Lillian was married.

MA: And they ended up in --

GH: They were there, that's why we went. My father wanted to go, so there were three of us girls. And one came back here to get married, 'cause she was about to get married but she went anyway. So she came back after six months. Then I came back after a year to get married.

MA: Was your husband someone you met in Chicago?

GH: From here.

MA: Oh, from Hawaii?

GH: That's why. So we both wanted to come back here to get married. So only one sister there, the one left, she got married to a mainland boy. And he didn't go to camp, he was in Utah. Now, they were like sharecroppers. They struggled and his father decided they're not going to camp, so they moved to Utah, but it was worse. At least in camp he would have a roof over his head and food to eat, and they would be fed and they would have housing. But they were so poor, you know, because he wanted to stay away from camp. Because I guess at that time, they didn't know what the conditions would be. He thought he was doing them good, but I think he did them any justice. And his mother died not too long after she had the baby, the daughter. She's about... much younger than them. But they were so poor, she couldn't get the care, and she died. It's a shame what they went through. So that's why my brother-in-law always remembers those days. He always talks about those days, when they were so poor, and so he appreciated. He became a pharmacist, and very good at it, and so he had a good life.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.