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HM: In the fall of 1941, Bob and my sister Alyce went away to school on the mainland. Bob to go to Wharton School in Pennsylvania, and my sister to a fashion design school in Los Angeles, California. And she lived with a minister's, Japanese minister's family. My father wouldn't allow her to leave unless she could stay with a decent family or something because he was worried and he didn't want her to live alone in an apartment or something. So he allowed her to go away, and she lived with this minister's family. Now, when they had to go to camp, she had to go to camp with this family. So she ended up in Manzanar, and she said that every day she would go to the office and say, "I don't belong here. I'm not part of this family, I don't belong here." But she said, well, they wouldn't listen. So she was in Manzanar, and my brother in the meantime was in the East Coast studying, so he was okay. Except because he had studied at Keio University just before the war, and he was fluent in Japanese, the government wanted him to go to Minnesota to teach in the MIS Language School. And he said he refused and he said, no, he turned them down. So in that case, they wanted him to come to Washington, D.C. and help translate some documents. So he had to go to Washington to do that. And I guess after Wharton, he went to New York City to attend Columbia for master's. But then he said he did go to visit my father in camp at Tennessee, when he was in Tennessee, but I guess other than that, I don't know too much except that he said that... I guess eventually they released my father and a Mr. Miyata of Miyata Shoten in Palama. There was a large store called Miyata Shoten in Palama. And they knew each other in camp, so the two left, but they won't allow them to return home. So because Bob could guarantee him, they allowed him to go to New York to live in New York City. So the two went to New York City before the war ended. And they lived on 69th Street, I remember. But (yes), according to Larry, there, he was able to meet with some manufacturers. Because during the war, they couldn't ship anything to Hawaii. So that was sort of towards... just before the war ended, I guess. So that contact with the manufacturers reestablished a lot of the shipping. So I guess he enjoyed that stay because (...) at that time, my brother Bob got married in New York. He met a New Jersey girl, and she's a Nisei, and they got married. So he was able to attend the wedding, and then he came home after that.
BN: So you mentioned that there were just three of you here.
HM: (Yes), only three of us during the war. And so we coped with blackouts, gas masks and air raids, air raid sirens.
BN: And was the business able to keep...
HM: Well, yes. My mother was not fluent in English, so she needed help. And we had a manager, Mr. Miura, who ran the store for us during that time.
BN: But it stayed open.
HM: It stayed open throughout, I don't know. Because they weren't able to get a lot of goods. Well, whatever was in the store, I guess, you know. But they couldn't order anything. But I guess...
BN: You had local suppliers, then?
HM: I think so, but I'm not sure. Because the business end I don't know. I guess, somehow, the store continued.
<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.