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TI: And you mentioned going to Punahou, let's go to your college. What college did you attend?

CH: Swarthmore in Pennsylvania.

TI: And do you know why you chose Swarthmore to go to college?

CH: My father, for some reason, made a list of colleges he recommended and that was one of them, and it was a list that circulated among some of my friends of the family. They ended up going to Swarthmore as I did. What he based his recommendations on I don't know. There might be a copy of it somewhere. I never saw it.

TI: But it sounds like as a child you moved around quite a bit. You were born in New York City, you lived in Hawaii, you went to Pennsylvania.

CH: True. And I paid no attention. You know, as a kid if your family moves you move, so there was no question in my mind as of how come we kept moving or doing things, so it's sort of a fuzzy background.

TI: Okay. No, that's fine. I'm gonna now jump to a date, December 7, 1941. Do you remember that day and what happened?

CH: Not really. Remind me.

TI: So in your memoirs you mention that you were in Toronto. This was the date that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and you were in Toronto having dinner with your brother and his wife. And his wife, I think, was born in Siberia and had spent time in Japan, and I think they were actually cooking a Japanese dinner that night.

CH: Quite likely. She, my brother's wife was a good cook and was often preparing meals. And... something fuzzy there as to why she was preparing this Japanese food.

TI: I think in your memoirs you mention that she had lived in Japan, and so maybe that's why she did.

CH: Yes, true. Her parents were... I do have some faint facts in the back of my head, but...

TI: Well, what I'm interested in is what, if you recall any discussions about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, because you had lived in Hawaii, so you knew where Pearl Harbor was, and do you recall any memories of what you felt or thought when you heard about this?

CH: I don't think I paid much attention. Didn't concern me. It was just something, a fact that, I just went on about whatever I was doing, so I don't think I had a reaction. I don't know. I warned you you weren't gonna get much information. [Laughs]

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.