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JD: Do you remember anything of what your parents said to you during this time when they, when the family was going to be moved? Did they just say, "Pack your stuff, we're going"? Did they tell you that you were going to be gone a long time? You don't know?

JH: I don't remember anything. What we did was... the only thing I do remember, and very vaguely, is that we put our... see, most of the people that got interned, they were only able to carry what they had in their hands. We were fortunate. We had a pickup truck and we could drive to Moses Lake, which is, at that time, maybe a three-hour drive or four-hour drive, probably more than that. But anyway, we had more personal possessions than the people that were interned in the camps. But all I could remember is that there was four of us stuffed in the front part of a cab of the truck. And we traveled that way, it must have been terribly uncomfortable, but I don't even remember that. [Laughs] So I was just too young and too naive to even know about all the details about moving. And as I say, I vaguely remember. I do recollect one thing. We went to a restaurant during this time because we were traveling a long time. So my dad finally decided that we'd pay for a meal. And I think it was in... no, it couldn't have been Ritzville. Anyway, it was a little small town, and we stopped at this restaurant. And I've thought about it now, my thoughts now, I was thinking that, gee, maybe they would even refuse to feed us. The guy was, the restaurant owner was a very nice man and treated us so well. I'll never forget that. Because it was days of trauma, although I still wasn't aware of war with Japan. I don't think we'd ever been to a restaurant. [Laughs] Now, everybody goes to restaurants.

JD: Do you remember what you ate?

JH: No, I don't. [Laughs] I don't remember.

JD: Did your father or your uncle ever tell you later what they thought that move meant? Because they were leaving behind decades of hard work and their whole life, did they have any idea that they'd be able to come back and reclaim it? Or was it just a matter of...

JH: I can't answer that. I have no idea what their thoughts were. Obviously, it was a crushing blow to their lives. I mean, goodness, they worked for days and hours and weeks, months, to build Bainbridge Gardens to the wonderful place that it became. And I imagine it was -- you're probably going to ask me about this later -- but I imagine that it was real traumatic when they returned to devastation.

JD: Yeah, it's difficult for modern people to imagine the effect on individual families or on the whole community because growing up here, we can't really imagine something like that happening to our families. It's very difficult to imagine. Or the effect it would have on your life from that point on. It's very hard to imagine. But your parents didn't talk about it later.

JH: No, they didn't.

JD: Did you just come back and you sort of got to work with your, now you were old enough to help your father and uncle rebuild?

JH: That's right, yeah. Yeah, by then, well, I have another story of my oldest brother and sister who were stuck in Japan during the war. Then my...

JD: They'd been sent back for education, right?

JH: That's right. And then my next older brother was a great help to my folks, both during the Moses Lake situation and the rebuild of Bainbridge Gardens on Bainbridge Island. He was very instrumental in helping my dad, because now he was the oldest boy. So I came up a step, too, little bit, and I would do all the communication on the telephone, and I would do the necessary governmental forms that were, needed to be addressed and sent out. So it was a learning process for me, too, so I'm thankful that I had that opportunity.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.