<Begin Segment 21>

SY: And where was your older brother then, when your dad died?

HS: Well, what happened was I'd saved up camouflage money, so I had four hundred fifty bucks when I, which is a lot of money, and I'd saved it. And then working about a year and a half in Minneapolis, I didn't spend any money because six days a week I was gettin' my breakfast, lunch and dinner, so Sunday is the only time I spent for breakfast and dinner and didn't eat that much lunch. But I'd saved up fifteen hundred dollars, so when my roommate went back to camp he and -- Suk -- another buddy named Kaz Miura, they both went back the same time because they were getting drafted, and so they said -- since I worked six days a week, eight to five, I could never bank, so all my money I put in Suk's account. And so Suk was, good thing he was so honest, when he was leaving for the army he handed me the bank book and said, "This is your money." And so I had fifteen hundred dollars, so he knew, so when he went back to camp before being inducted in the army, my dad first thing, he asked Suk and Kaz is, "How's Hy doing?" And so he says, "He's doing better than all of us." Says, "He's got fifteen hundred dollars. None of us got hardly anything saved." And so my dad knew that I had the fifteen hundred dollars. As soon as he comes to Minneapolis, he waited a while then he said, "Let's buy a house." [Laughs] And the fifteen hundred dollars was a down payment on a house, and the house was four thousand dollars. So I thought, I wonder how people could... but I bought a little two story house, has three bedrooms and one bath, and so one bedroom was pretty large and so there's a smaller bedroom and then, there's two smaller bedrooms.

SY: So all of you lived in this house? You lived there too?

HS: Yeah.

SY: While you were in Minneapolis, still working at the Radisson.

HS: Yeah.

SY: And your older brother came to Minneapolis after that?

HS: He came, he came in March or April. I think it was March. But then the family got together the first time at the end of March, I think. And then June 21st, 25th was my birthday, but this Dan Schouf had a bunch of friends over and they were celebrating a birthday at my house. And so then it was pretty hot and so Pastor Schweigert happened to be there and so some of the, couple of friends said, "Let's go swimming in Lake Calhoun." And so my brother just got off work a little before three o'clock, and he said, "Wait, wait, I want to come too." And so then Pastor Schweigert took us to the lake. There was Dan and Ann, Ann came. I don't remember if Dan came, but anyway, she was sitting on the beach in the sand there, so she was watching. My brother went into the lake straight and I went up to here [indicates chest level], then I swam sideways, and then I'm not a strong swimmer, so I swam about ten, fifteen feet and I tried to stand up. I couldn't touch bottom, so then I swam back. As soon as I touch bottom, Ann said, "Where's Johnny? Where's Johnny? I don't seem him." Well, as soon as he hit, going toward the lake, about fifteen feet out, there's a forty-five foot drop off, and that lake is frozen over in the wintertime, so when he hit that drop off it's like ice. He got a cramp and went straight down without a sound. Not even five minutes after we hit the beach. And they didn't find him 'til the next morning. They had grappling hooks and it was forty-five foot long when it caught the bottom, brought him up. But my dad said, "Let's go to the lake," and I said no. I refused, says, "I don't want to see him when he comes up," I says, "because that'll haunt me the rest of my life." So I didn't want to, that's the one thing I didn't want to see.

SY: That was your, and it was not on your birthday but very close. And you were turning --

HS: Yeah, the twenty-first, and the twenty-fifth is my birthday. But that was a Sunday, so we had some friends over, and Dan and Ann were there, Pastor Schweigert came by. That's when they, somebody said, "Let's go to the lake and swim." It was real muggy. It was about ninety degrees, and in that one no air conditioning, and boy, it was really muggy in the house.

SY: That must've been nice to have the pastor, the family there, though, when all of this would, happened.

HS: Pastor Schweigert was a friend all his life, all my life. I forget what year he passed away, but...

SY: And your mom and dad were not there when it happened?

HS: No.

SY: So it must've been tough on your dad and...

HS: Yeah.

SY: Rough. So big --

HS: Well, you know how Issei are, the chonan is supposed to carry on the family and everything, but my brother was very gentle and so actually I did everything around the family. So everybody thought I was the older one, 'cause I was three inches taller than him and I was doing everything around... my brother never had a driver's license, even though he was eighteen. But he just never, I guess one of his friends tried to teach him, but he just said, "No, I'm no good at it." So first thing, soon as I turned sixteen, I got a driver's license and so I did all the flower, and went with my dad to the flower market and did all the deliveries.

SY: So your, you really, then, became the eldest son at that point, so you had to take, did it feel like you assumed more responsibility?

HS: Yeah, I used to take my kid brother to Japanese school every Saturday, and so all my friends would see me driving. And I would be doing all the delivering of the flowers and everything, taking customers around.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.