<Begin Segment 6>

BY: All right. So the war ends, the camps are closed, where did your family go after the war?

HH: Well, before the war ended, we went to Spokane. We were allowed to move over to the other side of the mountains, and so my dad got a job at a cleaning, dry cleaning establishment. And we went, and the first place we were living was near Providence... not Providence, Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane.

BY: And do you know how he got that job?

HH: I think a friend found the job for him. Can't remember exactly.

BY: And then so how long were you in Spokane?

HH: Until right after the war. I think I was there at the beginning of the second grade when we moved. And we came to Seattle, and the same friend helped my folks buy the dry cleaning shop that they had on Madison Street, Fashionable Cleaners.

BY: And going back to Spokane, so then you started school in Spokane. Do you remember that at all?

HH: I remember the first grade, kind of. But I don't remember how I learned how to read, I just kind of knew.

BY: And by that time, you were speaking English?

HH: Uh-huh.

BY: Okay. And do you recall if there were, were you part of a Japanese community in Spokane that you remember?

HH: No.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.