<Begin Segment 16>

MN: And when did your family leave camp?

YH: We left camp on the Saturday, the Saturday before Easter.

MN: And this is 1943.

YH: Yeah.

MN: And you left camp, but you had to come back into camp the next, that day. What happened?

YH: Yeah. The train didn't stop at the Denson station because it was filled with servicemen who were returning home, so that's why the army truck had to bring us back to camp.

MN: And then you went out the next day, and then did the train pick you up?

YH: Yeah. It stopped and they picked us up. And I sat in the aisle 'cause there wasn't any, there weren't enough seats.

MN: Did anybody on the train harass you?

YH: No. 'Cause there were a lot of soldiers on the train, but no one harassed us.

MN: How did you feel about being surrounded by so many soldiers?

YH: I don't think I thought anything of it. I just knew they were soldiers because they had uniforms on. And they didn't pay any attention to us either.

MN: So from Denson where did you go?

YH: To Des Moines, Iowa.

MN: How, why did your family end up in Des Moines, Iowa?

YH: Because my father had a sponsor, and the American Friends Service Committee picked us up at the station in Des Moines.

MN: And where did you stay in Des Moines, Iowa?

YH: We stayed at their hostel, this, the Quaker hostel. And Ross Wilbur was the director there. He came to pick us up at the station.

MN: And what kind of job did your father find?

YH: Well, he, the Quaker house, they found my father a job and it was at the YWCA in Des Moines, Iowa, as a custodian.

MN: Did your mother work also?

YH: My mother found work as a, at a dry cleaning place. She took all the buttons off the clothing and then sewed them back on, and she also hemmed skirts and dresses, and she did things like that.

MN: And then you were talking earlier about when you were in Des Moines the government shipped some of your items from California?

YH: Yeah, from my grandmother's barn. And I said most of the stuff didn't belong to us, and one carpet was there, but it was so moth-eaten my mother threw it away. And most of the pots and pans didn't belong to us, so she went to the Salvation Army and bought some stuff there.

MN: What about your parents' instruments?

YH: I don't remember them being there, but we must have gotten them someplace because we have them now in Pacific Palisades. We have my father's shakuhachi and my mother's koto.

MN: So do you think that during this time the government shipped it to Des Moines, Iowa, or do you think you got them later?

YH: Must've been in Des Moines, Iowa, 'cause that's the only time I remember the government sending us anything.

MN: 'Cause the okoto is pretty big to ship.

YH: Yes, it is.

MN: But you remember having it in Des Moines?

YH: No.

MN: You don't. But you have it now somehow.

YH: Yeah. 'Cause my daughter Sylvia played the koto at her sister's wedding.

MN: Did you have the koto in Chicago?

YH: We must have because that's where my daughter was married.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.