Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Richard Iwao Hidaka Interview
Narrator: Richard Iwao Hidaka
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Skokie, Illinois
Date: June 16, 2011
Densho ID: denshovh-hrichard-01-0011

<Begin Segment 11>

TI: We should establish so this is after Merced, this is when you went to Amache? So you're at Amache, you have lots of time on your hands and go ahead.

RH: We didn't have a lot of needs as far as what we needed for the family, but later on we had to make bunk beds and as I remember now, I think the bunk beds came after my dad came back from the internment camp, his internment camp. So he got the lumber somehow, anyway as far as we're concerned, we played a lot of cards, a lot of cards. The cards got so tattered you had to put talcum powder on there so it would slide a little bit. And then I never thought about going to town and buying new cards 'cause we really needed new cards. But a lot of times, being that there was no money, we'd go over there and steal it.

TI: This was in town, you would do that?

RH: Yeah.

TI: And what kind of things, like what would you steal in town?

RH: Just stuff that we'd need. But mostly we would... after they took the guards away, we would sneak out of the camp and go to a nearby town and just do a lot of exploring, a lot of walking. I remember doing some fishing and couldn't catch anything, we could see it in the water, the fish. So we made spears and we speared 'em but took home a bunch of fish one time and we didn't know what to do with them because we couldn't cook 'em. And the mess hall, we couldn't ask the mess hall to fix the fish for us so we just buried it. It was a waste and we quit doing that. But we'd go exploring around that's mostly what we did.

TI: And you mentioned so at some point you said the guards disappeared or went away?

RH: Yeah, after about a year, the first year they just took the guards away because there was no place for us to go to and if we wanted to sneak out we could sneak out easy. And there was nobody that was trying to sneak away, so they just took the guards down. So we were going to burn the guard tower down, they don't need it anymore, and the guys said, "No, don't do that. You're going to get in a lot of trouble," so we didn't do it.

TI: But earlier you mentioned you did do some mischievous things so let's talk about that. What were some things that you did?

RH: Well, my brother, George, they figured out a way, they looked in the police cars that were parked near the high school in the center of the camp because it was a top, the camp was on a hill and it was right on the top. And he went down there and looked in the police cars and all had the ignition keys still in there. He made a note of that and a couple nights later he says, you know let's go up there, push the car down the hill and then we can start the car up and they can't hear it. And so we'd go riding around. Oh, okay, so they did that for a while and they drove around the camp.

TI: But they were pretty young right, to drive a car, they were young.

RH: He was only about... he's a year younger than me so say he was fourteen years old. And some guys knew how to drive a car and so they taught each other how to drive and they drove around the camp. And then finally one of the guys figured out a way that they can drive out of the camp without going through the main gate. Oh, so they drove out and they went to nearby towns all over. The things got bigger and bigger and there was trucks being stolen and police cars and all the trucks, they all left the keys in there. So we'd just take 'em for joy rides. One time it must have been about seven or eight of us and we were riding around this convoy truck and the driver, I don't know how he did it but he drove off the rode into the ditch and drove quite a ways. I says, "Drive a little further and maybe we can get out." The further we drove the deeper we went, and we were about fifteen miles from camp. So finally we says, "Well, we got to back out," so we backed out and it worked. They were able to back all the way out and onto the road again and back to camp. Boy, if we got caught out there, man, we were about fifteen miles from camp, the nearby town called Holly.

TI: Now did you ever get caught? Or did people ever suspect what you guys were doing?

RH: Oh, yeah, they knew we were doing it. They didn't know who maybe or when, so they couldn't pin it down. But one day the four of us took a truck out and went to Granada and we were driving around town and here comes a pair of headlights towards us. So I said, "Stop." I said, "Usually those guys, the town people are asleep by now. Well, why don't you drive down the side road here," and he says, "Yeah, we know where it comes out at the highway, okay." So we did that and lo and behold, the next thing we know there's a spotlight in the window of the cab and the guy steps on the brake, the driver, and so I was sitting next to the driver, there was four of us abreast. And I says, "No, no, step on the gas." And I stepped on his foot on the gas and we took off and the guy kept staying with the truck, so I just turned the wheel and side swiped him off the road. And the next thing we know he come around the other side so we weaved over to that side, it was only a lane and a half dirt road. So the guy stayed in back of us, the cop, and so when we got out to the highway, the guy made a beautiful turn onto the highway, he didn't slow down, but he didn't turn it back fast enough and we went down the ramp going down off the road through a barbed wire fence, through a irrigation ditch and on the other side into the field and the truck came to a stop. We all took off but that cop grabbed the driver of the car and tied him up with his belt, he can't get out 'cause the door is locked, but he knew he could get out. So he just kept his hand over his face and he says, "Oh, he don't know who I am." So when he got into the camps, as soon as he got in there he had to slow down so he just opened the door and ran out and he got away.

Okay, so we had to walk back from out there it was about five miles and we walked back and the next morning I got up, nothing was happening. Just went did my usual thing, went to school, and ten-thirty there's a call come into the room and the guy says, "Is Richard Hidaka in this room?" Yep. "We want him in the front office." Okay, so I went with them to the front office. Why do they want to see me in the front office? When I got there I saw a cop standing there. I said, "Oh, that's it." So with that we got into his police car and drove past the police station. He kept on going and went to the administration building. When I walked into the front door, I saw the other three guys sitting there on the bench. I said, oh, man we got caught. So went to the superintendent and he told us all about what happened. So he says, "Go with the other guys and wait for a minute." So later on he called us all in and he says, "Well, you guys did a little damage to the property, the truck, the car, and it comes out to forty dollars." Well, forty dollars in those days is a lot of money so he says well, you're going to have to pay it. Oh, ain't got forty dollars and there's no way we're going to come up with it but he says, "Since you guys like trucks and cars so much, you're going to wash trucks and cars for the next fifteen weeks all on Saturdays, just on Saturdays, all day, whatever we can come up with." So we washed trucks, cars, buses, and all this stuff. And that went on for about a month for me and then my brother got into some trouble, George. And so says, "Oh, you guys got to leave camp." So he told my dad, "You guys got to leave camp." I think another family had to do the same thing. Got to leave camp by a certain day so my dad says, "Well, my carpenter, you have him working for you," that's me right, he says, "I'll give you my other son to do his work with the guys, and I got to have him make the crates and things so I can leave camp." So I had to do all that work and my brother had to finish out my sentence. [Laughs]

TI: Now was your dad upset at you?

RH: He didn't say a word, he really didn't say a word, never said anything.

TI: Now, I just want to ask a couple clarifying about that great story. When you said the cops, were these the internal security people from camp or were these outside?

RH: No, internal.

TI: So these were Japanese Americans.

RH: Japanese guys.

TI: And so this was all within camp, it wasn't with outside?

RH: That's right, and the Japanese cops, they wanted to send me to prison or something.

TI: So they were pretty mad at you then.

RH: Yeah.

TI: Especially when you try to knock them off the road.

RH: Well, that was a white policeman.

TI: Oh, so that was outside?

RH: No, he was a member of the police department in camp but he was a cop. And I found out years later, years, in '98 actually, in 1998 they were thinking about sending me to Denver, what do they call that, juvenile?

TI: Reform school?

RH: Reform school, yeah. That I found out in '98.

TI: How did you find that out in '98?

RH: One of the kids told me. And he had an in with somebody and he passed away but his brothers are number one with me.

TI: So you were kind of the camp juvenile delinquent?

RH: Yes, I was, number one. There was some bad guys there but I was number one.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.