<Begin Segment 14>

TI: Okay. So going back to your family, so after December 7th you went back, people were kind of shocked. So what else happened? Anything else? I mean, you talked about, like a week later, maybe hearing rumors that the Isseis would be sent away to a camp, but not the Niseis, not the U.S. citizens. Did anything else change with the family in terms of their day-to-day work? Like did you continue going to school? And I guess we can pick up the story that someone kind of helped you clean out your locker, but what happened at school for you, like the next day?

TH: After that I didn't go back to school. That was it. And I don't know, I didn't think anything of it then.

TI: So tell me about that. Why didn't you go back to school? Was it a family decision or did the school not want you there?

TH: That I don't know. I don't ever remember going back to school after she helped me clean my locker out.

TI: So tell me again. So who was this person who helped you?

TH: Her last name is Wolf, her daughter was Liala Wolf. And she was a neighbor, I mean, I used to play with her, we used to do a lot of things together.

TI: And so do you know why she would be there with you going to school to clean out a locker?

TH: Well, she knew I was a good friend of her daughter's because she and her daughter were both crying and I was wondering why are they crying for? I didn't think... they knew something I didn't know, I guess. To this day, I never thought about that.

TI: Now, were there any other Japanese students at your school?

TH: Just one other, that Hasuiki family. One other... what was his name? (Yoshihara). Anyway, he went to Annapolis, (his sister was Kay Yoshihara, married to an Abe). Kay Abe, have you ever heard of her?

TI: Yeah.

TH: Yeah. Her brother, they lived in Beaverton area, I mean, in Tigard area.

TI: And do you know if they had a similar situation where they stopped going to school also?

TH: That part is completely blank. Because I don't remember seeing them again.

TI: What was the name of your high school?

TH: Tigard.

TI: Tigard.

TH: Just Tigard High School.

TI: I'm curious now, I want to go back and look and see if I can find something in the newspapers and stuff about this.

TH: You mean his name? What is it?

TI: No, that's okay. I was just, if I can get any information about students at Tigard, if they had any policy.

TH: Yeah, because I don't remember going back after that at all.

TI: And so after that happened, was it pretty much you're staying home and things are just day-to-day about the same?

TH: It must have been just before evacuation, just before... we left May 2nd...

TI: Oh, so maybe it happened, so maybe you were going to school for a while and then you left.

TH: Yeah. But I don't remember going back after we cleaned out the locker.

TI: Do you remember any comments from your Caucasian friends after December 7th? Or any, like, you mentioned your friend the Loomis and things like that.

TH: Just kind of disappeared. The only people that stuck with me was that Ruby Rice, Margie (Bartel), and (Viola) Lierman. Even if they didn't live close by.

TI: Oh, interesting, okay. So you had a sense that they were still your friends even after December 7th.

TH: Right.

TI: How did you know that? Did you see them, like Ruby Rice?

TH: Well, Ruby Rice, they moved away, a place called Newburg. But anyway, we started writing letters. We wrote letters all our life until she passed away, I think it was two years ago. And Viola, I don't know, we wrote to Margie. It was sporadic, but we wrote, kept in touch, and we still do.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.