<Begin Segment 13>

TI: So let's talk about you and your family. So at some point the orders came that you had to leave the area, so what happened to your family?

JH: I would say technically I already had a girlfriend, supposedly. Of course, we weren't engaged or anything. But my neighbor came to my dad to help him load, he had a house full of girls, to help load the furniture and this and that on their truck. And one of the girls came to me and said, "John, why don't you come with us?" I said, "I already have a girlfriend." [Laughs] So that was the end of that, although he invited my dad to several places inland. I said, "You can go if you want. I'm not gonna go. I'm gonna go with the bunch." So that settled that. Naturally, my mom don't say nothing. She, she couldn't.

TI: So what did your father do? Did he stay with you or did he go with the other...

JH: No, he left it all up to me then.

TI: Okay, so he stayed with the family.

JH: Yeah, there was no argument there. He was kind of pleased that I got all my money out of our equipment and stuff. The only thing is the house, but who's gonna buy a house when the guy's leaving, especially in the country. Well, two things, when the ultimatum came that we had to move, my landlord says, "Can you pay six months' rent in advance? Because this is gonna be only six months." In other words, it's gonna be all settled in six months. Says, "Sure, I can do that." He says, "Put all your goodies in one room," stove and mattress and, "Put it all in one room and then board up the windows and the doors and everything." He had a pear orchard in the back, so he has to come. He says, "I'll keep a watch on it." That's okay. So we did that, and then two days before evacuation I went to the draft board, says, "You know we're leaving. Have you any instructions?" And the clerk says, "As soon as you change residence, refer back to me. When you get there, refer back to me. If you get a job, refer back to me. If you get fired, refer back to me. If you change residence, refer back to me." So I did that like clockwork, so when I got to Heart Mountain I did two weeks of carpentry, I reported that. And there was an opening in the fire department so I switched to that, I reported. Just kept right along. And when I became an officer, then it's stationary, so every six months I reported that, I reported that. And I always got "enemy alien," 4-C, unfit for military service. Three years I got that. By the same token, I reported, on the other hand, as the younger staff in the fire department got taken for the draft and the fire protection officer, (Glen Rumley), hakujin, says, "John, we're losing a lot of manpower. What's your draft status?" And I told him, and he says, "Well, if they call you," says, "Let me know right away 'cause I'm gonna write 'em and tell 'em you're an officer in the fire department and you're essential to the war effort protecting five million dollars of government property." I never did have to ask him that.

TI: So they never drafted you. And why do you think so? 'Cause you were, yeah, you were, well, because you were, maybe you were married?

JH: I have two opinions. One, I was not being evasive. In other words, I did exactly as I was told. A bunch of the other guys, once they were in camp they didn't give a damn. Then all of a sudden there came this ultimatum, "Anybody that's not working in the war effort, we're gonna draft you." So there was a mass exodus of, even married guys left. Boy, there was a shortage of everything.

TI: Or do you think it might've been your position too, as an --

JH: Hmm?

TI: Or do you think it was maybe your position as an officer in the fire department that they said, "Well, we won't draft him because of that"? Do you think that might've been...

JH: No, I think I honestly reported just as they asked me to. That's my opinion.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.