<Begin Segment 5>

TI: So I'm going to move you to December 7, 1941. Do you remember where you were when you heard about...

LH: I do. I think we first heard about it at church, and then I remember being at a neighborhood park, they had a park maybe a couple blocks from where we lived. And being on the swingset and talking with a friend in the neighborhood, and I was aware that something was going to be different. Intuitively, something was strange.

TI: And this was even before you had heard the news?

LH: No, after I heard the news that we were going, Japan had bombed, yeah. So it made me feel a little bit strange, but I didn't know why.

TI: And at some point, did you discuss this with your parents or your brothers?

LH: No, and that's... our family was not very good at open communication. My brothers might have said something, but I don't remember.

TI: So was there anyone that you could talk with about this?

LH: I don't remember talking with anyone about it.

TI: Okay, but this feeling that something was going to happen.

LH: Something, yeah. Just feeling strange about it.

TI: So tell me some of the things that you observed. What did your family do after December 7th? Did their business change?

LH: Yeah, it would affect my dad's business. And I remember we had, in our store window, a huge flag, an American flag hanging. I know they talked about, my brothers and my dad, I could hear them sometimes discussing things. But being the youngest, they sort of kept things away from me. And so I knew something was going on, and I heard them talking about Centralia, something about a Portland group got stranded. I'm not sure of it, so I can't even really discuss it.

TI: Stranded and something happened to them?

LH: they needed to get back to Portland kind of thing, but it's not clear.

TI: So your dad was talking to your, you said your oldest brother George?

LH: Uh-huh.

TI: And what did George do?

LH: He helped in the business, but as soon as he heard about, as soon as the war started, he decided to enlist and asked my dad if it's okay, and he said yes. So he did not go to camp and he enlisted after he painted the sign, of course.

TI: So talk about that. So earlier we talked about the store being called the Tokyo Cleaner and Dye, I guess, or Dye Works. And so there was a big sign that said Tokyo on there. So after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, what did the family do?

LH: They discussed the need to change the name, and they came up with the name Custom Cleaners. But the time of the picture in the newspaper, they had not quite decided on the name.

TI: Yeah, so you showed me the newspaper clipping, so it's a picture, I think, of your brother painting over "Tokyo," and so there's kind of a blank spot. And then later on they put "Custom"?

LH: Custom. I don't know, I wasn't part of the discussion.

TI: And then shortly after that, you said, then your brother George enlisted, volunteered to go to the military service. Do you know if it was hard for him to do that? Because in many parts of the country, they weren't allowing Niseis to...

LH: Oh, but this was before that, before they stopped that. So before they were aware that, oh, you know, we shouldn't have Niseis in the army, he enlisted.

TI: So he did this right away, then?

LH: Right, and he had no problems.

TI: Now did you recall any stories from him about what it was like during those days?

LH: No, there were some letters, but no, uh-uh. So as a result, he didn't go to camp, and then this is what enabled my, we have sort of a written records from my dad and my brothers who kept writing to him and telling him about what was happening in Portland, the business and need to sell and evacuation, curfew and everything. Had he not enlisted, we wouldn't have those letters. So that I find those letters are sort of interesting and valuable.

TI: Right, because they give kind of a picture of what was going on both inside and outside the camp.

LH: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2016 Densho. All Rights Reserved.