<Begin Segment 27>

TI: So you're at Bismarck, your older brother is at Santa Fe, and your parents are at Tule Lake with your younger brother. How did you stay in contact? How did the family...

HN: Well, you know, just letters. That's about it.

TI: Because when the war ended, how did you plan? How did you make plans in terms of where you would meet, where you would go, all that?

HN: We didn't have any choice for how we gonna go, where we gonna go. We... the letters that we exchanged was, "Eventually, let's hope that we meet maybe in Japan," and hoping somehow we'll be able to regroup again.

TI: So were you give instructions that when you go to Japan you should go to a certain place?

HN: I had a good idea as to where my grandparents' home was, so I didn't worry about that. But my brother in Santa Fe then went to Japan before my family and I did. He was on the army troop transport one month before we did. We departed Bismarck on late December and got to Portland --

TI: Is this December 1945?

HN: '45.

TI: Okay. And, just to establish, your brother had left, had already left from Santa Fe? And was...

HN: Yeah, right. Probably a month and a half before that.

TI: Okay, so December '45 you leave Bismarck, you go to Portland...

HN: Late, yeah, Portland. And we got to Portland on the twenty-fourth of December, and next day we departed. Christmas Day, 1945. And that's where I met, got back together with my family, on the ship.

TI: On Christmas, Christmas Day.

HN: They were on the ship, yeah.

TI: So describe the reunion.

HN: I was so surprised. My kid brother, he was still young, maybe eleven, running around on the, and he said, "Oh, Hank," and this is where we... and then he led me to my parents' location. Then we knew we were on the same ship. And I was, we were younger, were way down in the bottom of the ship.

TI: So you were kind of like in bachelor's quarters.

HN: Right, yes.

TI: But that must've felt good for you, to know that your parents and brother were there.

HN: Oh yes, yes. That was a great relief.

TI: And do you recall the name of the ship?

HN: General Gordon. G-O-R-D-O-N.

TI: So that was, I guess in some ways, a Christmas present, to be with your parents.

HN: It was, yes.

TI: At that point did you know, or did your parents know that your older brother had left already for Japan?

HN: Yeah, I think so, because he, before he departed Santa Fe he must have sent them a letter saying he's leaving.

TI: Do you recall any discussions with your mother or father when you got reunited? Any, anything said?

HN: Nothing significant, except, well, you know, "We finally got together, and let's, let's work together to have a semblance of future in Japan."

TI: So on the journey across the Pacific, any memories, anything that stands out?

HN: I was, volunteered to be a, do some dishwashing for the mess hall. And funny thing was one of my friends, we were dumping the garbage in there, and some garbage get big, so we had to take a knife and chop it, and this guy, joking said, "Here, you white bastard." [Laughs] And this soldier was looking behind me, and this guy looked back. He didn't know what to... and this guy, the soldier was old enough and... what is it? Great enough to tap his back and say, "Okay, you guys," and walked away.

TI: Okay, so he didn't, he didn't make any trouble for you.

HN: No, no.

TI: But was that pretty common, a lot of hostility or anger towards either the government or the people who had done this to you?

HN: Not physically, but deep inside they had the feeling of resentment, pretty good resentment, yeah.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.