<Begin Segment 22>

TI: Okay, so let's talk about, I know it's kind of a long period of time, but when your father returned. Describe that. What was it like when he returned, because when the war started you were, what, thirteen years old, he was there almost five years, so you're almost eighteen years old.

HH: Yeah.

TI: So it's a long period of time. You've changed a lot, you know, from, I think from thirteen to eighteen, you probably blossom into a young woman, so you've changed a lot.

HH: Yeah, I was in my last year of school. We were the first postwar grads, so everybody was happy that they came back. And he had a job because that company was good enough to give him his job back.

TI: So even before you get into his job, describe when he first came back. How, did you know when he was coming back?

HH: I, we did, but it was almost a few days after they arrived -- they had to go by ship, nobody came by air, airfare -- and more than happy to see him back.

TI: So he would first go to Honolulu?

HH: Yeah, and they were kept there a couple of days and then came back to Hilo.

TI: And so when he was coming to Hilo, did the family know that he was going to be on a certain ship?

HH: I think so.

TI: So just, can you recall, when you first saw him, where you were? Did you, like, meet him at the docks?

HH: Oh, no. I, no, I don't know how he came home, but I have a picture of him with leis, leis on his neck, carrying you, carrying you and the other kid. [Indicating another person in the room]

Off-camera voice: Keishi.

HH: Keishi. Keishi carried somebody, you and...

TI: So some family members met him right away.

HH: Oh, no, this was at home. So I don't know how they met him or who...

Off-camera voice: We don't know how he came back.

HH: I think by bus. You know, they let people off, they controlled it.

TI: But he got, he made, okay, so he came home, though.

HH: Yeah, and then the martial law ended October '44, so I think we were kind of free to do whatever we could, but I think gas was rationed yet, so you couldn't be running around.

TI: But he, he came back, you said a few months before the war ended?

HH: No, after.

TI: After the war.

HH: The war ended in August, he came back in November. It took them three months to bring him home.

TI: Okay, November. November 1945.

HH: Yeah.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.