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TI: You mentioned how your husband Jake eventually joined you, but then you said he went into the army from there?

AH: Yeah, he was drafted.

TI: Okay. And so what service did go to?

AH: Well, he went to Camp Blanding, and then he was sent to Germany. But he never talked about it, so I don't know if it was part of the 442 or where did the Nisei who were trained in Camp Blanding; were they integrated into the 442? Do you know? I'm not sure.

TI: No, I'm not sure.

AH: Because I know there were several who were drafted in 1944 and went to Camp Blanding instead of Camp Shelby.

TI: Yeah, I think there were men who trained in Camp Blanding and joined the 442.

AH: Oh, okay.

TI: So that was, that might have been the case.

AH: Right.

TI: But now I'm thinking about your relationship. I mean, here you got married, you eloped right before you went to Manzanar, then once you got to Manzanar, there was no privacy, and then you became pregnant and had a child. And then you were separated from your husband because you went to Jerome to be with your sick father for several months. And then he comes just for a short time and then goes to the army. So what happened to the relationship? It seemed like it never really had much of a chance.

AH: Yeah. It was only during the period we were in Manzanar that we had a steady time together. And it became apparent after a while that the chemistry wasn't right. But at that time, in Manzanar, I had no idea that we would separate. But because of the long separation and because of all the little personal circumstances that happened later, after he came back from Germany, it just didn't go well, so we decided to split. So at that point, after we got divorced, I joined my family in New York, because most of my family went to New York because my sister was living there already. And my brother still lives in New York, my younger sister still lives in New York, so a good part of my family had relocated out of the camps to the East Coast, so I went there. So I lived in New York for thirty years, less five years when I was in Japan.

TI: And when were you in Japan?

AH: From the end of 1949 to the end of '54, so it's five years.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.