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DG: So can you tell me about James Omura?

FH: James Omura? He lived on that Sportsman Road, and we'd ride the bus to school, he says, "How are you?" and kind of waved from the bus when he, he never rode the bus, although the bus went by his house. He says, "You kids ride on the bus and wave, and here you don't think of exercise." That's why want to walk to school. But he was different, and I thought, "Wow." But now we think he was, I think he was different from other people, other students, you know. Because those days, we all wanted to ride, not walk. But he wanted to walk, not ride.

DG: And what do you remember of him during the war?

FH: During the war, I didn't know where he was.

DG: And did you become reacquainted with him later?

FH: Later, yes. Because he was real independent, and he was against the war, naturally, and he was against the evacuation, and he went to the jail for that.

DG: Can you tell me more about what you know of that?

FH: He was, he worked for Mr. Woodward, even when he was going to high school. Reporter, he was the editor of that papers. But he went to the jail because he was too blunt. But later, he was released and JACL apologized, he wrote a book. To write the book, he used to write to me to help, what happened to Cole Russ, what happened to friends on Bainbridge, and school days. He lived in Colorado. And he visited Bainbridge a couple times, to the Moritanis, all his friends before. But he was a loner, you know. Come to think of it, he might have liked me a little bit. Because through the hallway, he used to give me pencil. I just used to take it, but I didn't know. [Laughs]

DG: So you corresponded with him after the war? Can you share some, do you remember some thoughts?

FH: After he wrote it to me, and then he was writing a book when he died. In one letter he complained that he should go see a doctor, he had heart trouble. But I did tell him, better go see the doctor. But before long he died of a heart attack and he had an unfinished book of his life. Art Hansen, was it, was his name? Something like that. I was, he wrote to me, I got to know him, too, because he came for an interview, and he knew James. He's a professor at California, and he wrote a book now of James, sent me the book. And before that, somehow, corresponded between Jim and myself, he sent me all the copies. I was surprised that time. And last, just last year he sent me the book. But it's too bad he died young. I heard he died on the desk in front of the typewriter. He had a stroke. But he knew he, he told me one time that he thought bad heart, but must have been too late.

DG: So how do you think... he wrote a book about himself, and did he talk a lot about the war and how he got arrested?

FH: Art Hansen is going to finish it, he hasn't finished it yet. I don't know what he wrote. But he was married, he had two boys. One is a doctor, and there's another reporter in Seattle, what's his name, I forgot. He called me one time, that his son wanted to, if his son wanted to come and talk to me, would we welcome him. Said, "Sure, I will." But I haven't heard from him yet. But yeah, he was getting there, but he had a hard life. He was an editor of one of the paper, Colorado, he had to go to jail and he had to start all over again. But I don't know too much. He was different. He went to Bainbridge but he was working, later he got a job in Seattle and he graduated from Broadway High School. I remember he sent me the graduation notice but I didn't even go to graduation.

DG: So when he was arrested, did you know he had been arrested at the time?

FH: Then the war started, and he, evacuation, he refuted that, and I guess he got into trouble.

DG: How did other people feel about that? Did you know, did you know that had happened to him?

FH: Other people, even JACL was against him for making waves about evacuation. But now they kind of, he was only, not many fought for it, but he wrote that we shouldn't be evacuated and all that, so they later, it was not a very good idea, people thought.

DG: How did you feel about what he did? How did you feel then and how do you feel now?

FH: Well, I thought, and my husband did, too, just do what the government wants you to do. The children are too young, and we have to do what they tell you to do. So I didn't, I didn't think it was a good idea, but the President say, it's it.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.