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MA: So, and then, about December, 1942, you were headed over to the mainland.

GH: A year later, uh-huh.

MA: Can you talk about that day that you left? You mentioned going and meeting at the immigration station. Is what where you saw your father again?

GH: Yes. That's when we first met him after he was picked up. But that morning, that I can remember, that morning. 'Cause I was eleven by then, and then my aunts and, all the aunts and uncles came to see us in front of our house, and came to say goodbye. And it's blackout, so in the morning, early in the morning, we can't turn on lights either. And we had to say goodbye. We had to use daylight, I guess, we had to leave by daylight. And it was really sad because my aunt kept telling me, "Don't forget to record all this information." And as I said earlier that I did, I did write the journals, I did all the way through, but we didn't keep it. [Laughs] What a shame, huh? So anyway, I still remember that day, that I just felt so scared. I thought, I don't know we're going, I don't know when we're coming back, and we grew up with all our relatives, cousins and aunties and uncles. And here we're leaving them and nobody knows where we're going. So I told them, "I'll write," I'll write to them and tell them where we are." And my schoolteacher, my teacher was very understanding when I told her we were going away. I guess they were a little puzzled, too, because they didn't really understand. But she was very nice, and she said, "When you go there," she said, "you write to us and I'll read it to the class and I'll show them where you are." And she was nice and I did do that. I wrote to them, and she would show them on the map where we were. And she would read my letters to them and they would write to me. So it was kind of nice, where she tried to make them feel, at least we had a normal life, that we were just prisoners. We went to school and all that. So I remember that part. My sister did, too, she had some letters with her teacher in the ninth grade, I think.

MA: When you were leaving, so when you all sort of met up at the immigration station to go on the ship to the mainland, did you know anyone else, other families who were going?

GH: No, no.

MA: So you were, kind of, all alone.

GH: We didn't know anybody. We didn't know anybody. The people from the outer islands seemed to know each other because they came on a ship from the outer island. Those days, you don't fly. Everything is by ship, and so they came over, and I think it takes a couple of days to come from the outer islands. And so they, either they met each other or they knew each other. Because especially Big Island, it's like country, and people all know each other, somehow. And so a lot of them knew each other, and we didn't know anybody. And so even on the train, so from the ship, getting there, and we got on the train. All the way on the train, four or five days on the train, we just didn't even mingle with the other kids. We didn't know anybody, we stayed by ourselves, and later, when we talk about it, gee, we were so timid, you know. We didn't even try to mingle. But they all seemed to be having fun, they all knew each other, but we wouldn't do it.

MA: So how long was that ship ride to the mainland?

GH: I think it was about five days. Got pretty sick, too, seasick.

MA: And were you under, I mean, armed guard at that point?

GH: No.

MA: What was the security...

GH: No, no. We had regular rooms, but not fancy rooms. I guess the rooms that we had, because if I recall, there were bunk beds in there. So maybe we were in the lower berth, yeah. And that I don't remember too many details on. And I think, I think we ate in a dining room. I think we ate in a dining room. I don't remember too much detail on that. But it's about five days. And I remember in San Francisco the band was playing, what's that? "California Here We Come," you know that song. And the band, I still remember that band was playing. I was surprised. So then the guards, there were armed guards there.

MA: In San Francisco?

GH: I think it was for the... you know what, I think it was for the troops. There were troops in the ship, too. Must have been for the troops. It was wasn't for us, the band. But yeah, then we got there, there were armed guards because we had to go to Oakland. They had to take us to Oakland and so we had to get on the ferry. So the armed guards were all around then from then on. And my sister remembers that vividly and I didn't. I didn't... I was kind of oblivious. I don't know why I didn't notice all the details, but she did. She remembered that.

MA: That's interesting, though, in your ship there were, there were soldiers. I'm assuming from Hawaii, from Honolulu?

GH: Well, no, they were troops that probably they were transferring them or something. These were just regular GIs. And I remember there was this one big room where they were playing some music and entertaining, and the girls were dancing with them from our group. And then they were doing the hula and all that. [Laughs] So they intermingled then. I guess they thought we couldn't go anywhere on the ship. There's no escape anyway, so how can they guard us there on the ship? So we were pretty free.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.