<Begin Segment 23>

TI: So when you saw your father at the house, how had he changed over those four --

HH: Oh, he hadn't changed. He was the same mustache and everything, in the same kind of suits. He must've worn that suit for four years. [Laughs]

TI: What about his demeanor? I mean, what was his, was he..

HH: Well, he is, he tried to make it sound like he had a grand vacation, you know. He never gave us the hard part of living, except that when he, when my mother served him baloney, he said, "Please don't serve that," he wants to cry when he sees baloney.

TI: Because he had so much of that when he --

HH: Yeah, because they eat Japanese food. They don't eat baloney and eggs. They eat rice and miso shiru and that kind so... and then they're forced to eat it. And I think they said some place in Sand Island the guy said, "You have to eat everything that's before you," kind. He was a army kind, so I think that made him want to cry when he sees baloney. [Laughs]

TI: 'Cause he'd just want Japanese food from then on. How about his friends? Did people come to the house after he was released, like haiku club friends?

HH: I think the haiku club was dispersed. The haiku club, one of the guys, he had a daughter who was working for the federal government, and so she took it upon herself to proceed to try to get her father out. And she did succeed, because of the five or six or seven, I forget what, members, only two were permanently taken away. The rest were questioned and released, and the reason was most of them were eight-hour kind of job, they were working for other people. My father, who could kind of maneuver his schedule, did a lot for the community, especially meeting the navy, Japanese navy ship, to entertain them. Besides, his office was right next to the Japanese Chamber of Commerce, which I think coordinated the, you know, taking care of the naval, not individually, so...

TI: So the haiku club didn't meet anymore. But how about just friends in general? Did people come by, did you see any of that after your father was back?

HH: Well, they don't come that often, but I think they did. They can go to his office, so a lot of that kind would go, not to the home. The home is too small, too crowded.

TI: But right away he was able to get his job back?

HH: Oh, yeah.

TI: And he did that. So, again, the newspaper company was good to him and saved his job.

HH: They took care. And they took care during the war.

TI: So when your father came back, he wrote a couple poems, haiku, about his experiences. Do you remember when he did that?

HH: I have it in here, but it's all translated to English. He did, she has, you can talk to her. [Indicates sister]

TI: Okay, so we'll cover it in the next one, about the haiku. Other than those poems, did he share much later about his experiences?

HH: He did, but it was always colored and very like it was such a joyful thing to go from camp to camp. He made, he never gave the poor side, you know, the bad side of things.

TI: Why do you think that? Why do you think he only gave the more positive sides of his experiences with you and the rest of the family? Why didn't he share the hard, the hardship?

HH: The hardship. I don't know. He just didn't want us to see that he had suffered. He only talked about the fun things he did, like, at some point when they couldn't get, read the newspaper -- at some point they did, could read the newspaper -- he would talk about how he would find newspaper, English paper in the trash, read it and announce it to the group of how things were going in the U.S. And that kind of stuff he said.

TI: How do you think the wartime experience changed your father, in his life? So if the war had not happened, he would have been a certain way. Did the war change it so that he was maybe different in any way?

HH: No, I don't... not that sharp at that point to analyze all that.

TI: How about things like your family, like your mother? Did you see any changes?

HH: Well, actually, everybody grew, I think, having had to kind of fend for themselves, and I think my mother probably grew the most. She had to maneuver how to feed the family and make sure that she could feed us an adequate meal, and I don't feel like we were starving.

TI: So your mother had to really grow to take, to take charge of the family.

HH: That's right.

TI: And so feeding the family... what are some other examples of your mother needing to really grow, like maybe even paying bills and things like that? I'm not sure, what would be, like, examples of her...

HH: I think most of, well, she was mostly in the food. We still had cash, I think. But she grew whatever she needed. She had lima beans. We ate lima beans and we cleaned that thing. You know what lima beans is? It's kinda hard shell. We ate plenty of that.

TI: Good.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.