<Begin Segment 22>

TI: Describe what Seattle, what it felt like coming back to Seattle as, at this point a sixteen year old? Did you come by yourself or were you with your parents?

HM: Yeah, yeah, I came by myself. Well I had some people that came with us because as a minor, they had to have somebody sign for us and my parents weren't ready to go. So I decided to go and try to get the house ready.

TI: So what was Seattle like for a sixteen year old at this point? Was...

HM: It was, I was glad to be out. [Laughs] I was happy to be. Of course we had gone out during different phases of the farm work. So I had exposure to places like Idaho Falls, Pocatello, places like Nampa, Idaho, Emmett, Idaho, Boise. I had gone to farm work in those areas. Also worked in Hazelton Idaho. So I had been out, but then going back to Seattle was like going back home. And the streets were dirtier of course, and it wasn't well kept up like it was before. But as people started coming back in the neighborhood, it started getting cleaned up and we started things coming back to normal again.

TI: Well who, who stayed in the neighborhood while most people were in the, in the camps?

HM: Well they had defense workers primarily. And let's see, we had oh, it was a Caucasian family that knew us from before the war that had rented our house. And unfortunately when their rental was terminated, I guess they felt ticked off and they took off with the furniture. And I didn't have the legal funds to go after them at that point. But I guess I, I would have if I had enough money to seek out an attorney to take action, but...

TI: Now why would they be upset to, to have to leave, given that you were coming back?

HM: Well, because they had cheap rent to begin with. And they had to go into a higher cost housing area. The fact that they had fairly short notice kind of ticked them off I guess.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.