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TI: So when you left camp, you now leave with a wife and a young child.
JH: And my mom and father.
TI: And mom and father, so where did you go? And what did...
JH: For some reason being that we were the last train, I mean the second to the last train -- no, no, the last train headed for California. They didn't come to San Jose. They let us off at Alameda, or the Oakland Mole. In other words, that's the end of the railroad. Then they took us by bus to Hunter's Point, which is a federal housing project for the war workers. And apartment, apartment, apartment, then at the end is the latrine and the shower, and my wife says, "No, this won't do. We have a crying baby and the neighbors are gonna complain." So the suggestion, well, there's another federal housing on the Pacific side, Camp Funston, or Fort Funston, so we went over there. And the manager there said, "We want fifteen dollars a month, I mean fifteen dollars a week ahead of time for each family head." And there again, apartment, apartment. I says, "No, this won't do. We're gonna keep the neighbors awake." And there's some older guy from San Jose, Santa Clara, whatever, on our bus to Fort Funston, he got mad and said, "I'm not gonna pay no rent in advance." And what happened to him, I don't know. But I spoke to the WRA representative, I says, "Can you do me a favor?" He says, "If I can, I will." And after he finished his paperwork he comes to me and says, "What can I do for you?" And I said, "We have a family friend in Palo Alto. Now, if you could take us to the train depot at Third and Townsend, then I can get off in Palo Alto and go from there." And he says, "Okay, wait a minute." Get paperwork, then he got in his Lincoln sedan, the whole six of us or whatever, and he drove to Third and Townsend, the railroad depot there. "Ah, too crowded." He didn't even look. He just zipped by and came down Bay Shore and took us to Palo Alto, and we said our goodbye, and that's how we started. Then our brother-in-law, who had already gone to San Jose, we got in touch with him. He picked us up, then Alice and my mother and the baby slept in the church, Buddhist church, and my dad and I went to this, my best man's landlord had a housing there, so we fixed that up and moved there. We didn't have too much problem.
TI: What happened to your belongings? I mean, before you left you put it in one room and you...
JH: Okay. I think it was in 1944, my landlord wrote me a letter and said, "We found a tenant for your land, so can you vacate the house?" So I went to the Evacuee Property office, and so, "I'll take care of that." He called the WRA in San Francisco. He told Bekins to go over there and pick everything up, inventory. I got it. Everything was there, to the last. So when we got to this housing I went to San Jose WRA office and they contacted the powers that be, and in two days we got it delivered.
TI: So everything was there?
JH: Yeah. Everything, kerosene stove, wood stove, mattress, bed. [Laughs]
TI: Good.
<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.