<Begin Segment 14>

TI: So how about the next day? Did your father go to work the next day?

HM: Yeah, he went to work. 'Cause he didn't want to get laid off, right? So he went to work, so he couldn't come home. So like I said, I don't know whether it was following day or day after, I don't know whether it was Marines or army because I didn't know what, what their uniforms looked like those days. That was the least thing that I worried about, military, those days. So these two young fellows came, really young boys, and then they came up the step. The frightening thing was, I've seen pictures where the rifle, they have that, what do you call it?

TI: The bayonet?

HM: Bayonet? I've seen only pictures. This is actually true. And the other fellow had his hand on the gun, came up the step, my mom said, "Girls, stand back of me." We were taller than Mom. Mom says stay back, so we stayed back. We'd be, for a change we'd listened. [Laughs] And then she opened the door. The first guy who put his foot on the living room floor, guess what Mom said? "Boys, we Japanese do not come in the house with shoes." She emphasized the word "we Japanese." I think she meant well. She said, "We Japanese do not come in the house," and you won't believe this, but those boys removed their shoes, the boots. They probably heard the mother say, "Boys, we do not come in the house with dirty shoes or muddy shoes," because they were just as afraid of us as we were afraid of, they didn't know what was in the house and we were afraid of the guns. But those boys removed their boots.

So they looked into the living room, we had not a single piece of furniture, only zabutons here and there. Mom made beautiful zabuton. They went to my room; there's nothing in my room because we just moved in. So they went into Amy's room, nothing there. Miyeko's room, nothing there. Because we just moved in. So they went into Mom's room. Mom had a camera. Remember those Kodak accordion type of camera? Mom had that. So they, they're gonna touch that; Mom said, "Don't touch that because I've taken pictures only of my, my three girls and pictures of my, seeing how much we were improved (clearing the property)," so they let it go. So Mom says, "I'll show you," so you know on the trunk, they called it, we called it toranko -- it's trunk, every Japanese family had that. That's where they kept all the important papers. So we had stack of futon on the trunk, when my mom went there to take that off boys didn't move. They let Mom do it. They must've trusted my mother. They must have. She took it off, she opened it up, and she brought the album out. "Now, boys, you can see so many pictures of my girls." Then they went to the hotoekesan. We're Buddhist, so we have an altar. So they got the, Mom said, "Stop, don't do that. I need that now in the worst way," so they didn't touch that, they, we heard rumors -- now, these are rumors -- they knocked it down. We heard rumors they, that they even scattered the ashes around. That's the rumors that we heard. Funny thing, we didn't have telephone, but those rumors ran around real fast. They didn't touch it.

And then they went into the bathroom to see what was -- now, when we were growing up we, they had a kusuriyasan, medicine man, that went to house to house and then we bought medicine from the kusuriyasan. And then Mom -- Mom, brave one -- she stuck her hand in the bag, she brought all the medicine, had a picture of Japanese soldier blowing the bugle and the Japanese flag. She said, "Boys, you can take this back with you. It's only a cold medicine. And if," listen to this now, Mom said -- she was so brave, so calm. I wish I learned to be as calm as Mom. She said, "If you find it, if it's poison you can come and pick me up," she said. Boys did not take that with them. They must have really trusted my mother. They knew she was... Mom was honest. She didn't raise her voice. She was calm as a cucumber, I'm telling you, real calm.

And they left, they had to walk through the kitchen, said, she said, Mom said, "If you boys in my neighborhood and you want something cold to drink," and we drank nothing but Kool-Aids. We didn't have soda pops at our house. My father didn't drink, so we didn't have beer or anything. Said, "You can come by and have something cold to drink." So they went off. They didn't want anything and they went off, but Mom... Mom really saved our lives. I feel so arigatai I had such wonderful parents. I wish you guys could have met my mom. She was on the heavy side, so I think that's why we all look like, Mom used to always say, Mom -- this the funny part of Mom. She said, Mom had beautiful legs, she had real nice legs, top heavy, but she said, "I can't understand why you girls got daikon legs and I have such legs." She used to lift up her dress and show us her legs. That was the funny part of my mom, all the time. She always compared our, our legs, but...

TI: It's amazing how strong she was, how calm she could be when all this was happening.

HM: Yeah, she was so calm. You know, her, I think her thought was just us, the girls.

TI: Helene, thank you for sharing this. I know it's, it's emotional, it's hard, and I appreciate you sharing this about your mother.

HM: Yeah, but Mom was, Mom was... I lost her so young, but...

[Interruption]

TI: So, Helene, we were just, you just described the soldiers at your house and your mother showing them around, and after the soldiers left, what did she say to you and your sisters?

HM: I don't remember what she said. I'm sure she was just as scared as we were. That's, she told us, "Girls, stand back of me."

TI: And so as they went from room to room, did --

HM: Yeah, we were like little ducks following Mom.

TI: So you followed them around and watched what they did?

HM: Yeah, we were, we weren't, I was already sixteen, so I was a young lady, you know?

TI: And you said taller than your mother, too.

HM: Yeah, we were taller than my mom, and yet we followed her. Must've been a sight, huh, to see young ladies just following Mom like that, just like the ducklings.

TI: No, I love the way you described it because I can almost, I can visualize it. It's like a movie.

HM: Yeah, slow, slow movies. Followed Mom.

TI: Now, did the soldiers take anything?

HM: No.

TI: So at the end, even with a camera there and things, they --

HM: Yeah, they didn't. But the sad part, we talk about the camera -- we'll come to that later. I'll tell you the story. But you, you've seen, heard stories about mothers, you know the, like pioneer days, what mothers did. Mom did exactly the same.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.