<Begin Segment 21>

MA: Well, is there anything else you would like to share? Any other thoughts or memories or anything?

JH: Oh, not really. I know, I can tell you this: my sister Sandra was very active in trying to get the reparations in Honolulu. She is four years younger than I am, and she's a lawyer. First, she worked for the PUC, and then she opened her own firm and did telecommunications, and then she went from there -- 'cause the economy was getting bad -- and so she is now working for the Young Brothers, it's a barge company, they take goods between islands. So she's there in the legal department there, because she knows how to address the legislature. She used to go before the legislature for the PUC. So I asked her when she called me, I said, "Are you going to be working the rest of your life?" She says, "Yeah, I guess so." [Laughs]

MA: But it seems like her legal background must have been so helpful with the redress.

JH: She is a genius. My sister's IQ is very high. It was very difficult for my kid sister and myself because my father -- which you know now you're not supposed to do this -- my father would compare our report cards. Okay, if I came home with one 'B,' I had failed. My sister Sandra would come home with all 'A's. Every report card, 'cause she has a really high IQ. My younger sister, I asked Carole, "Did you go through what I went through?" when we were talking. "Yeah," she says, "Daddy always gets mad at me because I'd bring home low grades, and I was on the honor roll." I said, "So was I." But it didn't make any difference to him, he wanted all 'A's. So education was, I think, the core of his whole living. He was self-educated, he left school at eighth grade. My mother never left -- she didn't have much of an education, she went up until fourth grade. But she was such a good seamstress, my god, she was a good dressmaker. I give that woman credit. She was... physically she wasn't perfect, 'cause she always walked with a limp because of that osteomyelitis she had. Now, my kid sister, the youngest one, lives on Maui, and she was like me, a registered nurse. And specialized in eyes, so she worked for an eye clinic. And then had to retire because she wrenched her back. But she's doing okay, I saw her when I went back in September. And then she just became a grandmother, so she had to call me and gloat about it. So I asked her, "Is it a boy or a girl?" "Boy." So this is what I told her: I think Daddy put a curse on us because he couldn't have a son. I have all boys.

MA: How many boys do you have?

JH: I had five sons.

MA: Five sons.

JH: Uh-huh, I had five sons. My eldest was killed on the freeway at age thirty-seven. So that's... it's just like I'm in my mother's shoes when she lost her eldest. My sister Sandra has a boy and a girl, and my youngest one has two boys. See? There's a curse. [Laughs]

MA: You have quite a family, and thank you for sharing your story with us.

JH: Oh, you're welcome. I hope it educates people, and I hope they know that there were camps. There was a huge camp on Oahu, which they recently found, and that Sand Island was an assembly center, and the camps on the other islands.

MA: Well, I think your interview will definitely help educate people.

JH: I hope so, because I want them to know. After I'm gone, my knowledge is gone.

MA: Well, thank you very much. It was great, really great.

JH: Thank you for having me.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.