Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Helene J. Minehira Interview
Narrator: Helene J. Minehira
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda, Kelli Nakamura
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Date: March 2, 2011
Densho ID: denshovh-mhelene-01-0015

<Begin Segment 15>

TI: Did your mother ever bring up that her husband was a veteran of World --

HM: Huh?

TI: Did your mother ever bring up the fact that your husband, her husband was a veteran of World War I, was an army veteran?

HM: Yeah.

TI: So she would tell them.

HM: Yeah, she would. The funny story, she always said, "You know your dad," she would shake her head, "he got busted as soon as he got promoted." [Laughs] She used to shake her head and say that, because Dad was the kind of guy, and I think I'm like my dad, if you say, if I say something and it's not right then I think, but you're gonna have to prove to me that I am wrong. I'm not gonna take, that's one of my bad habits. That's Dad. That, I know it's wrong and yet you're gonna have to prove to me that I am wrong.

TI: But I was wondering, did your mother, like with these officials, these military soldiers, did she ever tell them that your dad was a veteran?

HM: No, but I wrote on my repatriation thing, "Why are you, why did you evacuate me when my dad served in the army in the First World War?" I wrote that on my paper. It didn't do any good. [Laughs]

TI: In the house, was there any symbol or sign that your father had served in the U.S. Army?

HM: No, no.

TI: So there're no pictures or anything?

HM: Oh, we had pictures.

TI: Of him, like, in the uniform?

HM: In a uniform.

TI: But they weren't on display or anything, so --

HM: No, no, no. We just moved, so the house was still bare. And surprising, our bedrooms were still clean yet, not messy. We didn't have chance to mess it up yet. [Laughs]

TI: Yeah. No, it's interesting to me that the soldiers followed your mother's orders, I mean, taking their shoes off.

HM: Surprising, so they, I'm sure they heard their mother. Don't you think so?

TI: Yeah, that's what I'm wondering.

HM: Yeah, they heard their mother talking, because they were young, young fellows, real young kids. And I always wonder, did they ever survive the war? I think about that all the time. Lately there've been lots of helicopters going by, by fours, I think, "Are they getting ready for another invasion?" That's what I think about. And then about three o'clock or so, I don't know whether it's a passenger plane or military, I know it's about three or four o'clock in the morning... I'm a very light sleeper, I don't know, because of the war I still have the fear. The kids always say, "Mom, forget about it," but every morning about three o'clock I could hear the plane coming from the distance, roaring sound, because they're going, they want to pick up altitude -- airport is down there, so they come -- so I'm hearing the planes, so I don't like that. So I'm up about three o'clock every morning, so actually I don't sleep very well.

KN: Even still today, because of the war?

HM: I think it is, because you can hear that roaring sound because, like I said, they're stepping on the gas and trying to pick up altitude, is it? 'Cause when they come to the Waikiki they're going... so I still have that fear in me. I don't think it's ever gonna go away.

TI: Yeah, I think some of it just is always gonna stay.

HM: Yeah.

TI: Going back to your, you were talking a little bit about your father, the gas rationing so that there's only, like, a certain number of gallons, so he with his job had to stay there, then?

HM: Yeah, he stayed at Aunt Teruyo, who's the one that, she was very proud of the family and she told me all the stories, and it's a good thing that I jotted down, like I said earlier, whatever paper I had in my bag, I jot everything what she said, so I have, in fact, I brought you some scratch paper that I can show you. But you know, I'm jumping ahead, but I brought a book.

TI: Well, why don't we keep talking? Let's just do it when we get there. So I want to get to the point where some soldiers came and made you, gave you the order to leave, but between the story you just told and when you had to leave, anything else happen?

HM: No, there was a quiet period. There was a quiet period. Like I said, we followed Mom wherever we went because we had to go outside, our bathhouse was outside, so we had to go out, so I think we took a bath about two o'clock in the afternoon. [Laughs] Because we didn't know whether the military's coming nighttime and there's just girls at home, so that's when the, that's when we used to have fun taking a bath because everybody would have to share the fresh water, so we had fun in taking a bath, washing our hair and cooking. And Mom planted some tomatoes, tomatoes did very well. So tomato is still my favorite vegetable. But it was a quiet time. We didn't, we couldn't go out; we didn't have a car, and people weren't traveling, the farmers were busy.

So, but I forgot to tell you, December 7th, when everything settled down, no planes were going, not even American planes, I had a boyfriend. At sixteen you had to have a boyfriend, so I had a boyfriend who came from Honouliuli on his bicycle, and, like I told my granddaughter, "Being a teenager at my time and your time is the same, just time is different and place is different." But I worried about, he, over the weekend he used to come to see me on the bicycle, so I told my dad, "Dad, you think Jimmy's coming down this afternoon?" thinking only about myself. So you know what happened, huh? This hand came up. But I'd never seen him after that, not a single word until a couple years ago I saw an obituary, that's all.

KN: You never saw your boyfriend after the war?

HM: Uh-uh.

TI: Even, so after that day, I mean, you never saw him?

HM: No. We didn't have telephone, so I couldn't call him or he couldn't call me, right?

TI: But it seems odd that you wouldn't have seen each other.

HM: He went to St. Louis. I went to Waipahu school. So we never had a...

TI: And then just, you said a few years ago you saw the obituary, so he had died.

HM: Yeah.

TI: Oh, that's, that's interesting.

HM: Yeah, that was, that's the sad part, but I guess meant to be like that.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.