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TI: How about when you first... and I say Portland Assembly Center, it was sort of like the stockyards, right?

LH: Yeah, they were called the stockyards.

TI: So do you remember your first impressions when you went there, what that was like?

LH: Exact first impressions, no, but I do remember the planks over this dirt floor, and on a rainy day, you could smell the earth, I didn't like that. I remember the cubicles, the long hallways, the wooden hallways, getting my typhoid shot, and because it was open ceiling, we could hear kids crying throughout the night and that kind of thing. I remember the arena, and one of my first impressions was when I saw all the people gather in the arena, and because I grew up in a Caucasian neighborhood, I just was astounded, and I thought, "Who are these people? Where do they come from?" It was like my first culture shock at seeing people like myself, it was sort of funny. And I remember the outside compound where we had a, with the fence around it, and those young soldiers going up and walking up and down with their guns. I remember, distinctly remember, being outside and looking out at the fence, up close against the fence, and my back was to other people. And I was thinking, "How could this be happening?" Because somehow I knew it wasn't right. And I was thinking, well, if my parents hadn't been born Japanese, I wouldn't be here. That's really what I was thinking, it wasn't a very nice thought. I was not happy with Japan, and I was also, I felt like the government, I just couldn't understand how we could be there, or how I could be there. And I said... I knew I was a loyal person, and I felt like my country didn't appreciate, didn't accept that loyalty, or didn't, well, of course, you wouldn't know it. But as a kid, I was very hurt that my country didn't trust me, and that really has stuck to me.

TI: For a twelve year old, that's a pretty deep thought to have.

LH: Really?

TI: Yeah. I think a lot of the adolescents and teenagers I interviewed, they sort of get caught up in all the activities, the movement, the newness of a place, and generally I have to probe a lot more for them to maybe talk about some of this, but oftentimes they would say, "We were just kind of playing or busy," and didn't think about it that much. You actually really kind of had a stronger sense of what was going on and feelings towards that.

LH: At the same time, you feel like it's not real, because it can't be real. And yet you're going through it, so it was sort of an out-of-body experience.

TI: Yeah, I was going to say, it sounds almost like an out-of-body experience for you.

LH: And then Ms. Munsel did come to visit me, and she brought a letter from the kids, my classmates. I'm sure she thought she would be able to come inside and visit with me, but she couldn't. So they called me, and we stood there near the gate, and we visited with the barbed wire between us. And so when she left, then I was, I really knew, okay, I am in prison. I have a feeling that she was, I bet when she was back in her car, she was in tears.

TI: And when she was with you, do you recall anything that she said?

LH: No, I don't. It was very awkward.

TI: But you sensed, you said when she left, she probably went back to her car and was in tears, why do you say that?

LH: Because she was a very feeling person, and, well, she came to see me, and she couldn't really visit with me, and she probably felt badly that here was this kid... so I suspect she would be.

TI: An after she left, you talked about a sense of really realizing you're a prisoner. Tell me more about that, what other feelings did you have about that?

LH: I don't think I... other than what I've said, that it's just a strange happening, you're going through it, and it's like a dream or a nightmare or something, not a real experience.

TI: Do you have a sense that your parents could, knew that you were having a hard time?

LH: No, uh-uh, because we didn't, I didn't express myself to my parents, and they... I don't think they would have, maybe without saying anything, parents.

TI: Well, I was wondering because your time at Portland was pretty short, that your family transferred to Tule Lake as a very early group.

LH: Oh, okay. In one letter which I couldn't find again, my dad, he was writing to George, he did express that they were going to go Tule Lake as an advance group, one reason was he didn't think that was a good environment for a young person, that would be me. So they were aware of something, as a parent would be without... yeah.

TI: Even though maybe words weren't communicated, they probably could sense it was really, really hard for you.

LH: Yeah. And I didn't know a lot of kids. And I saw some letters that my brother wrote to George, they immediately organized baseball fields. They took that grass field and converted it. I think that's rather amazing. And so he was into sports right away. I wasn't, I was just running around.

TI: Well, so it was interesting, when you mentioned your father's letter, communication, that Portland wasn't a good place for a young person...

LH: The camp, the assembly center.

TI: That was, you thought, talking about you. Not so much your brothers, but...

LH: No, he mentioned a young... yeah.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2016 Densho. All Rights Reserved.