<Begin Segment 17>

TI: So when your father didn't come back right away, how did you find out that, where he was?

HH: I think, I don't know how, but we knew he had gone to KMC. And he could, he couldn't call, and then -- oh, the reason we know is because he had left without any change of clothes, so KMC personnel called our house to ask us to bring him change of clothes. So... it's twenty-nine miles, now, to go there.

TI: You mentioned that other families had, maybe, their fathers taken away. Do you have a sense about how many were taken from Hilo?

HH: I don't know, but the only thing is there's a book there that has numbers. And then they took lots of people away, but a lot were questioned and released, but remaining were 109 from this island that was sent to Sand Island after about two months.

TI: But initially they were at KMC? So they were, they were all there. Now for the families who had a family member taken away, were they treated any differently by the community?

HH: No, there were so many taken away that you kind of had a comrade kind of feeling, but you didn't venture out too long because martial law came right into play at that time. In a few days we had martial law, so you couldn't be walking around, or riding around because your gas was cut down and you couldn't drive around that much. I mean, not that I had a driver's license, but we had a car, and so... martial law was from six to seven no lights in the house, so you can't stay in the house with no lights so what we did was you plastered dark paper, or I don't know what kind, better than paper I think, on the windowpanes. Now, the windowpanes are not one whole sheet. They're, you know, the old type. And you, so that the lights wouldn't go out, show, because if there was light leaking, you would have the policemen come right to the door, say turn off the lights.

TI: So you'd be very careful that all the leaks or all the spaces...

HH: Yeah, and then I think we had only one room where we would put light and then we had this blackened paper on the windowpanes, but I don't think we stayed much longer than eight o'clock. And besides, no TV, we had only radio, so there wasn't much you could do.

TI: Now when you did the blackout and all this, was there ever discussion that Japan might --

HH: Bomb.

TI: -- bomb or attack Hilo?

HH: There was always talk that there was a submarine in Hilo Bay shooting or something, but we were careful not to show the light because you can see from the airplane. So we followed directions.

TI: So how did the family survive? So your father was the main, you know, breadwinner and all of a sudden he's taken away so, eight children, how... and your mother.

HH: At that time she was just back. [Indicating sister]

TI: So your oldest sister was back.

HH: Yeah. And then my father's paper company, Nippu Jiji, they had closed down but then they got permission to reopen shortly thereafter, and they hired my sisters and paid them to do the collections of subscription and do whatever ads they could pick up. And the house was no mortgage, so only the food, and then we had chickens and ducks and vegetables, so you survived.

TI: Oh, so you were fortunate that the company, the newspaper hired your older sister --

HH: Two. Her and my other sister.

TI: Do you think they did that because they knew that your, the family needed, needed help?

HH: Oh yes. They were trying to help us. There were lots of people who tried to help. If, the neighbor had a laundry and when she had enough laundry that we could do at home she would give it to my mother and she would pay it by piece, so she would have some income.

TI: So other families, other people in Hilo knew that, because your father was gone, that the family needed help.

HH: Helped, yeah.

TI: So the laundry person, the newspaper... what were some other examples?

HH: Right after the war they started small businesses, like handcraft with coconuts, and then my other sister got hired there, and they hired as much as possible from the families who were affected.

TI: Okay, good. How about, during this time, during the war, were there ever any problems with the other ethnic groups? You mentioned the Portuguese, the Chinese, the Filipinos...

HH: Not, not, they didn't, they didn't. They were not a problem. I think they were kind of more pity for us.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.