<Begin Segment 5>

DG: Okay. Can I go back and ask you more questions about before the war or leaving, preparing to leave? [Laughs] Do you mind going back? I guess I wanted to know a little more about preparing to leave for the camps and...

FH: Well, we didn't have much time, because for a while -- since we were citizens, we, they said we don't have to go. Then there was a rumor that we all have to go, or... until we really found out we all have to go. That's when we started worrying about... and by that time, we got a letter saying that the car insurance, house insurance, everything was cancelled, because they were all my husband's friends, but they apologized that from the agent, I mean, headquarters, had to be cancelled. Whether they gave us the money, I don't know. And I was only about thirty-two, so just a country girl. And he did all the... but it was sad to see him suffer so much, and we didn't know what to do.

DG: So you had a week to get ready to leave?

FH: We had to get ready to go. We didn't have suitcase in the house, we had to look for it. You know, we never traveled.

DG: And what did you do with your house and your land?

FH: The workers, a Filipino man that was working for us took care, but he wasn't, we found out that he drank a lot, and, but the house was still there.

DG: How did you feel as you were leaving? How did you feel about the security, the safety of your house and your land?

FH: Well, we didn't know how long we'll be gone. We knew where we were going. So we couldn't plan ahead, but we'd get, I don't know, financial way, I left it all to my husband. I didn't, I just didn't know anything about the business. But we had a tractor and all that, horses and dog, chickens, turkey, a regular farm, but it's all gone. By the time we came home, of course, it was hard.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.