<Begin Segment 19>
TI: Another story that you mentioned during the break, that was when the end of the war, when the war ended you did something to...
JH: Oh. Well, going into detail, it was getting dusk, not dark enough for the stars to come out, but for some reason the neighborhood or the community was quiet. I don't know why. Then the desk sergeant comes to me and says the fire protection -- this is a new one, (Andy Kerr), not the old one -- the new one says he wants to talk to me. So I went. "Hayakawa, sir." He says, "Hey, blow the siren for five minutes. We won the war." So the desk sergeant, [makes siren noise], he's got a button. Then two Issei came. "What happened? Nani goto na," And I said, "The fire chief said we won the war, so blow the siren." And they said, "So daro," accordingly. The emperor said mujoukenkoufuku, unconditional surrender. I heard it on the radio, shortwave. That was it. And then just before the shift, duty shift, this new fire protection officer calls me and says, "What did you tell the project director?" I says, "You said blow the horn for five minutes, so I did." He said, "Well, he chewed me out." He says, "You want to start a riot?" Well, there was no riot.
TI: Well, and for you, what was your reaction that the war was over? How did you feel?
JH: The same as Pearl Harbor. [Shrugs] I'm a different guy, I guess, optimist.
TI: Good.
<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.