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TI: Anything else you can remember from the Yamato Colony that was kind of, maybe interesting or unusual?

FH: Well, there was one thing. Just another incident that I remember when I was about five or six. Father was still alive, he said, "Go release the horses, 'cause I have to look for water." House, the barn was on fire. Some night riders, midnight, came and shot, shotgun shots, and then torched our barn. That was a very, I thought, unfriendly thing to do, but there are those kinds of people. Even today, we have hate crimes, and that was part of that group. We don't know who did it, we just doused the fire and shikata ga nai.

TI: Did the community, because of these hostile acts, did they try to do anything to protect themselves? Do you remember the men trying to do anything?

FH: Not much. In fact, there's a story I read that this is after the war, World War II, many, most of the able-bodied served, they volunteered, 442nd. They come back, and people shoot guns through their houses. After they go and risk their life for this country. That's the kind of people still live in this community. And they're all over, so you can't just blame Livingston. But it doesn't take much to inflame these people. They used to say they were the Okies. Well, that's not quite true, I think. Lot of people that live right next door to you have those feelings hidden underneath. That's why education, that's why this kind of a program is so important to educate the world, yes.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.