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MN: Now I want to ask a little bit about your father. You mentioned that your father became a block councilman. How did he get this position? Is this something that the people in the block vote for?

IH: I don't know. I think it's probably a voluntary thing. Certain people step forward in each block and they want to be, represent the block. And it's a popularity contest, but all of the blocks had representatives, and they formed the camp council, and they worked directly with the administration in the camp, the WRA, you might say. Because it was very important for the community to be able to express their grievances and so forth and iron out any problems and that sort of thing. So he did that and he enjoyed it. He worked together with the WRA social scientists that were the representatives from the WRA who by training was an anthropologists that sort of kept track of the level of... what shall we say... feelings of the residents of the camp. So he worked together with him very closely and they got along very well.

(Narr. note: My father, Kumezo Hatchimonji, worked as a block representative for Block 27 and was therefore a member of the camp council. In addition, he also worked as an informal advisor for the WRA Community Analyst who lived and worked in the camp to gather information on the internees for the WRA. The analyst was named Asael T. Hansen, a professional social scientist. A close and personal relationship developed between the two. My father was able to advise Hansen on the lives and attitudes of internees at Heart Mountain with respect to issues they may have, aspects of their Japanese culture that may affect their lives at Heart Mountain and other sociological data.

The relationship did cause some suspicion among the Issei that my father was an informant to collect damaging information for the WRA but no actions were taken to stop the relationship. The WRA felt it was important to learn about the feelings of the internees, especially the Issei. I'm sure the reports of the community analysts from all of the camps were important in WRA policy decisions.

Hansen has written about my father in the book: JAPANESE AMERICANS from Relocation to Redress edited by Roger Daniels; Sandra Taylor and Harry Kitano. On page 33 you'll find Hansen's comments.

Another story about my father while at Heart Mountain was his selection by the camp administration to represent Heart Mountain at the All Camps Conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah at the time that the WRA was planning the closing of the camps and the resettlement of the internees, a very important part of the program. Two representatives were chosen from each camp. There were many issues about the resettlement of the internees. In some of the minutes taken of the discussions, my father stated that in his opinion that families should be resettled in groups as against individual family resettlement. He believed that most of the families were still headed by the Issei and in order to make a smoother transition into an unfamiliar community that groups should resettle together, as opposed to individual families, would feel more comfortable especially where language constraints and living styles are different. Starting life anew with the problems of housing, employment and assimilation for individual families would be an enormous challenge in the transition from the wartime years in the camp to ordinary life in a community.

How many of my father's recommendations were taken is unknown.

The additional information on my father is important to help describe some what he was like, especially as it contributed to community betterment.)

MN: It would seem to me that if you worked too closely with the WRA people, you might be considered an inu.

IH: Yeah, I think from some points of view, that would be the case. But I think if you could resolve problems and express the feelings of the people toward the higher headquarters of WRA, it's a good thing.

MN: So your father never got targeted to be beaten up or anything like that.

IH: No, not that I know of.

MN: Your father started this victory garden program. Can you share with us that program? IH: Yeah, it was interesting because he had the seeds, the Japanese seeds that he had in storage, and I guess there was an opportunity where he could use some of those seeds and put some of the camp residents, give 'em some activities to grow vegetables they all liked. And so he arranged I guess with the camp authorities to get a plot of land outside of the, outside of the fence, really. At that time we could go outside. And run an irrigation pipe out there with a source of water, and then the plot was sectioned off into plots, smaller plots, for individuals to do their own farming. And it was a great thing because a lot of the internees were farmers, and they have a great chance to not only produce the vegetables that they liked, but also to provide those vegetables for the mess halls, the napa, the daikon. It was a big hit. That was not the same as the larger production areas where it involved large acreages. That was a different program.

MN: That was the actual farm, the actual farm itself?

IH: Uh-huh. Using equipment and everything.

MN: Did your father end up, did he donate these seeds or did he get any compensation?

IH: I don't know. I think he probably donated 'em, because the seeds aren't that expensive.

MN: What about your mother? What did she do in camp?

IH: I think she got together with a lot of other ladies, handicrafts and so forth. I don't recall if she ever worked in the mess hall, 'cause a lot of ladies did work in the mess hall washing dishes and so forth. She might have got involved in knitting. 'Cause I know my aunt, her sister, lived in a unit right across from our barrack, and she was a great knitter, liked to knit. And I don't if they got, where they got the yarn and so forth, but they did a lot of knitting. But she had her friends, and I'm sure they kept themselves busy.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.