Densho Digital Archive - Earl Hanson Interview

<Begin Segment 1>

MW: Well, first, Earl, I would like to just thank you very much for on short notice coming out here so we can have this interview. It's important.

EH: Well, I had to have a chauffeur, because my chauffeur was busy.

MW: First could you tell us your name and your parents' names as well?

EH: Well, I'm Earl S. Hanson, and my father was Gunnar Hanson and my mother was Ingebjorg Hanson, and they lived in Eagledale.

MW: But they came from?

EH: Norway.

MW: Norway. Did they know each other in Norway?

EH: No, they met in Port Blakely.

MW: They both came to Bainbridge...

EH: My dad came to this country in 1910 and then my mother came in 1914 and she came to Tacoma. And all the neighbors on what is now called New Sweden Avenue, a lot of them were descendants from Norway, and they were born and raised in the same town where my mother was born.

MW: Oh, did she know them before she came over?

EH: Oh, yeah. One of them, well, the descendent of one of them was Elsie Lund who lives down in Madison Apartments, and she is the last one of that group that's living on the island that I know of. Mary Ann Erstad, her mother, was born in, well, I'll say Forvik, Norway, because that's where Mom was born, and she was from there, but Mary Ann lives in, right outside of Chicago.

[Interruption]

MW: So Eagledale, was that mostly Norwegian immigrants when they came?

EH: Yes and no, because there were Swedes and Fins that lived along there.

MW: Oh, you let the Swedes come in? [Laughs]

EH: Oh yeah, I don't know, they might have been there first. And then the Slovenians, they lived down in, what was called the south side, or down by the ferry dock, or the old steamer dock.

MW: At Taylor Avenue?

EH: Yeah, Taylor, and I don't know what the name of the street is now, that goes down to the old Eagledale dock,

MW: That's Taylor isn't it? Isn't that the end of Taylor?

EH: Well, that's where the ferry was.

MW: Oh, I see what you're talking about.

EH: But the mosquito fleet boats, they came in to the Eagledale dock, which is, well, you go by Mirkovich's, there's Mirkovichs on two sides of that road that go down there.

MW: Is that where the marina is?

EH: Yes.

MW: And what did your father and mother do? Your mother was a housewife, you said, and your father?

EH: My dad was a carpenter, a ship's carpenter and also a fisherman. He went to Alaska from 1911, I believe, 'til 1939 or 1940.

MW: Did he have his own boat?

EH: He fished for Libby McNeil and Libby. They furnished the boat for him.

MW: Were there other islanders that went up? Did he go up with...

EH: Oh, yes, the Nesses were up there, and they lived down on Rose Avenue I believe it is, but Marcus Batten, he went up, and then Pete Oness, he was a whaling skipper on the boat called the Akutan.

MW: Did you have brothers and sisters?

EH: I have one brother and two sisters, one sister is living in Silverdale. The other sister is in, outside of Pennsylvania, in Parkesburg, Pennsylvania, and then my kid brother lives in Rochester, New York.

MW: Oh, a long ways away for those two.

EH: Well, the sister married a fellow that went back there and she went with him and never came back. And then my kid brother worked for American Can Company, and when they shut the Seattle plant down, they sent him to Baltimore, Maryland, and then he ran the oldest can plant in the country, and then when they shut that down, then he went to Fairport, New York, onto the newest cannery, can making company.

<Begin Segment 2>

MW: And there was an elementary school in Eagledale, right, McDonald School?

EH: McDonald School.

MW: And that's where you went to elementary school?

EH: Yes.

MW: How many other students your age, in your class age, were there at McDonald when you were there, about? Were there ten or were there fifty?

EH: Well, in the whole school, I don't think we had fifty kids in there.

MW: And it was six grades?

EH: In our class, let's see, we had Carl Ness, Florence Book, Alice Marie Clinton, Carmen Rereicich, Mike Tarabochia, Ruthie Haugan, and I think that was all in our class. And then we had Ruth Howell as our first grade teacher, and then a lady named Edwards, taught us in third and fourth grade, and then we had Trace Lundquist from Scandia, over by Poulsbo, who was school principal and taught fifth and sixth grade.

MW: Were there any Japanese students at McDonald?

EH: We had one, a real prize, we had Peter Ohtaki.

MW: Peter... they lived in Winslow, I thought. But they must have lived...

EH: They lived in Eagledale. Yeah, and then I think he was there for one or two years, while I was in school, because Pete was one or two classes older than me and then they moved to Winslow because I think the mother taught Japanese at the Japanese school.

MW: Yes, she was the instructor.

EH: Yeah.

MW: Well, what kind of activities did you, did the kids in Eagledale do when they weren't at school? Did you go to the beach a lot?

EH: Oh, yeah. Well, down by the Eagledale Ferry dock, that was called Eagledale Park. There was a dance hall there, and an ice cream parlor, and a bath house... and a dock. And the beach was just beautiful, just pure sand, and then they brought the ferry in and the backwash from the ferry washed up all that rocks and ruined that beautiful sandy beach.

MW: That was a sad day.

EH: Yeah. But I had outgrown swimming down there then.

MW: Oh, on to other things.

EH: Yeah.

<Begin Segment 3>

MW: So after sixth grade, where did you go?

EH: I went to the high school.

MW: To the high school. So what year did you enter? You graduated in '41, is that right?

EH: '41.

MW: So that would be in the early '30s.

EH: 1935.

MW: '35, mid-'30s. And how many other elementary schools were there?

EH: There was Lincoln... what's the one that was...

MW: Island Center?

EH: I don't think there was Island Center. They were bussing them at that time, to Pleasant Beach. But there was one on, I think it was on Day Road.

MW: There must have been something in the north.

EH: I don't remember the name of it.

MW: So there was about four elementary schools?

EH: Yeah.

MW: So what was that like, the change from little McDonald to the high school?

EH: [Laughs] That was quite a change.

MW: Did you like it?

EH: Yes. I liked it real well. But what amazed me was when the clock come around and it was time to go home when we were in grade school, you know. There was no bell, no nothing. We had a bell to ring before school started, but when we got up to high school, each room had a bell and that rang and that was it.

MW: And you knew it was time to go. What kind of activities did you get involved in at the high school? Sports or theater?

EH: Well, I practiced a little bit of football. And I think the most thing that we did was we all had Model A Fords and working on a Model A Ford was a, they were easy to work on.

MW: Like the old Volkswagen?

EH: Oh, yeah, much easier than that.

MW: Even easier?

EH: Yeah. And after school we'd play chase and go putting all over the island and I lucked out, had a 1931 Model A Cabriolet, which had roll up windows and take down top. And I took the top down and boy I'll tell you, the girls, they really loved that.

MW: [Laugh], Did they go, while you were chasing each other around the island?

EH: Oh, yeah, they would sit across the back of the seat, and the rumble seat was always full.

MW: So you were a popular guy.

EH: Oh, well, when I had the car.

MW: Talk about the new friends that you, tell us about the new friends and the new, sort of the expanded...

EH: Well, I was familiar with the Japanese, because the Takayoshis, they lived in Eagledale also, and also, the Akimotos, who Jerry Nakata says were his cousins, and we used to play baseball, well, Joe Welfare was quite an athlete, and we always played baseball out in the street out in front of their place, because the Akimotos lived across the street from them.

MW: This is in Eagledale?

EH: Yeah.

<Begin Segment 4>

MW: And when you got to the high school, you were meeting kids who came from different parts of the island.

EH: Oh, yeah.

MW: And what was that like? Did you make new friends?

EH: Well, that's when I met Jerry Nakata, and Mits Katayama, Tom Kitayama, oh, whole bunch of them. Kato Okazaki, also, well, I used to pick strawberries for the Sakumas and also the Okazakis.

MW: So you, and this is in the summer, in summers before you got to high school so you already knew some folks in other parts of the island. And did you, tell us a little about your friendship with Jerry. I know he was your lifelong friend and the two of you were such buddies, and it's maybe hard to talk about him now since he is just deceased, but...

EH: I really liked Jerry.

MW: He was a wonderful man.

EH: He was just a super, super neat guy. And he and I were on the Boards Club together...

MW: What is the Boards Club?

EH: They took care of the stage. I think it was Clarence England, Jerry Nakata, Tom Kitayama and myself.

MW: That was quite a crew.

EH: Yeah, quite a crew.

MW: Did you get anything done?

EH: We had to.

MW: [Laughs] So did you change the sets at a play and be...

EH: Yeah, well, whenever there was any school activities, we would set up the props or open and close the curtains and do whatever had to be done to get the stage set.

MW: And did you do that all through high school?

EH: Just about. Well, not in... say we were in junior high, and actually we never did call it junior high, we're in the high school from the seventh grade.

MW: Well, it was just one building, wasn't it, the brick building that burned in the '60s, late '60s, wasn't it, that it burned, early '70s?

EH: I think so. Quite a while ago. And the one thing I liked, I liked the shop because we had Mr. Morley for that, and he was great with us guys.

MW: What kinds of things did you do in shop?

EH: Well, my first project was to make a little coffee table, and I still have that. And then I made some wrought iron stuff, and I still have that. And then Jerry and I were in Boards -- not Boards Club -- the trades class together. That was in our senior.

MW: What is the trades class?

EH: Mr. Morley, I believe in about 1938 or '39, went to the carpenter unions and got the okay to have a pre-apprentice trades class. And what we built was the manual arts building. That was torn down up at the high school. I don't know, you may remember it.

MW: Uh-huh, I do.

EH: Yeah. And there's a bronze plaque somewhere, but I think it's in the Bainbridge Island Historic Museum now, with all our names on there. But we completed that building.

MW: That's wonderful.

[Interruption]

MW: My in-laws lived in a house that was built, it probably was built by the trades class then with Mr. Morley on Manitou Beach. Would have been... I don't know when it was built, but it was about that time.

EH: The house that the Morans lived in -- and I don't know the name of the street -- but it's... oh, boy, down here, and they lived in it. And that was the house that was built two years before us.

MW: Well, it was very well-built, very sturdy and solid.

EH: Well, Mr. Morley was very, very thorough, and he was a neat guy to work for. I always loved to kibitz with him, you know, and one day we were having lunch when Norma and I were having a new house built, and Mr. Moran came in. And he was our, one of our teachers that we had in the seventh grade. And we got to talking, I was telling him about building the new house and so forth. And he left and I went on up and was making fresh coffee for the carpenters on our new house. And I hear this clunk, clunk, clunk upstairs, and I looked out and up, and the windows weren't in the place yet. And here were Mr. Morley and Mr. Moran. So we sat down there and had a cup of coffee together. And oh boy, did we reminisce.

MW: When you -- I have just a couple more questions about high school -- you were buddies with Jerry and I think you said Tom Kitayama?

EH: Tom and I were in Troop 498 of the Boy Scouts, and we met at Pleasant Beach school. And then Jerry was in Troop 497 under Mr. Foss, and I think they met in the Congregational church, Congregational church, I believe.

MW: Were you... so the different immigrant groups, you were all second generation immigrants, most of you?

EH: Yes.

MW: So the boys got together and were buddies. Did you also, was there a social mixing of the different heritages among boys and girls? Were there, like, could you, did your folks want you to date Norwegians or did they care? There wasn't any...

EH: Well, see, in my senior year, I went to work for the Port Blakely store. And I had worked there in the summers, and they needed somebody in the afternoon. So after school, then I buzzed right on down to the store and worked there for a while 'til six o'clock. I'd either have to deliver groceries or whatever had to be done.

MW: Was there any, was there any dating across the immigrant groups? I'm just trying to get a picture of the social mix at that time and how far it had progressed as far as... you know, now, it's not, there are lots of Caucasian-Japanese marriages on the island. But were there couples who dated when you were in high school? Was that allowed or not? Or, I mean, they were friends but didn't date?

EH: I don't think so. I really don't think so. Well, see, after we graduated, it wasn't long... well, see, we graduated May the 27th of '41. And December 7th came along and the Japanese people were taken away. And oh boy... that was...

<Begin Segment 5>

MW: Did you think, after Pearl Harbor, did you think that it... can you remember, did you immediately think that your buddy Jerry and his family was going to be in danger, or did it kind of come as a surprise?

EH: It came as a shock.

MW: When did you first realize? 'Cause there was a lot of talk nationally. Were you, were people on the island aware of that?

EH: Well, we thought it would be just the Japanese nationals that would be taken away. Not the younger group that was born, and American citizens. And when the soldiers came on the island, I had a talk with one of 'em, and he said, "There's nothing I can do. I'm under orders to take 'em out." And then I went down, I was working for Emmanuel Olson that day, Bainbridge Mercantile, and I took off and went over to see, I wanted to say goodbye to all of 'em, and especially Jerry.

MW: This was on the 30th that you're talking about, the day that they left?

EH: Yes. And I drove in, down to the parking lot at the Eagledale ferry dock, and the soldier says, "Up there." And they herded us up there, and there was other people up there and there was more that came. And verbally I didn't get to see Jerry or say goodbye or what. I told 'em, I says, "Here I grew up with this guy." And...

MW: He couldn't allow you to go and talk with him?

EH: Uh-uh. Of course, I didn't know... they brought 'em in in trucks and unloaded 'em. And who they were, I don't know. But I have a picture of Sadamoto and Kido and Lefty and Jerry all walking down the Eagledale ferry dock, and I think it was taken by either your dad or somebody.

MW: I think there were photographers from one of the Seattle papers.

EH: Some photographer took it. And they were in their letterman sweater with the B on it.

MW: Before... the soldiers came and posted about a week ahead of that. Was that when you first realized that they were going to leave, that all of the Japanese on the island were going to be forced to leave?

EH: Yeah.

MW: So you learned about it the same time everybody else did.

EH: Yeah.

MW: Did you talk about with Jerry or Sada or any of your friends?

EH: Well, I didn't want to hurt their feelings, but I wanted 'em to know that I didn't want 'em to go. They left without... I heard from Jerry from a letter after he had gotten down to California.

MW: Do you still have that letter?

EH: No.

MW: We don't think to keep things like that.

EH: I wished I had.

MW: Yes.

EH: That would have been a wonderful thing to have. But we wrote until I went in the service, and then I didn't think to take his address along with me. Then I didn't see Jerry again until, boy, after the war. I came home in '46, and I think Jerry was in Seattle. And I went to Alaska right after I got home. And went up there for six months. So then I really didn't see Jerry until I came back from Alaska. 'Cause we always used to buy our meat for the family from Mo and Johnny, and I think Jerry was working in there, too, then.

<Begin Segment 6>

MW: You left in '43, and what branch of the service were you in?

EH: Air Corps.

MW: The Army Air Corps.

EH: Uh-huh.

MW: And where were you during the war?

EH: Well, I went to Denver, Colorado, first, and then to Fresno, California, Hemmer Field, and then to Ephrata, Washington, and then to Gardener Field in Spokane, Fort Lawton, Fort Warden, back to Fort Lawton, then on to Okinawa. But when I was at Ephrata was when I got in there, well, I got to tell you about coming up from Fresno, California. There was only ten, twelve of us, I think, and we were wash out cadets. They didn't have any railroad cars for us, but they had parlor cars with private dining rooms, private bedrooms and so forth. They were really old. They brought them out of, from way back. And there were three cars of us, and they would go along and they would hook us on to a train headed north. All we knew, we were going to Ephrata. And we got into... boy, I want to say Modesto. And we laid there for quite a while, waited for a train, another train to come along that we could hook onto. And a troop train from Fort Ord came up, and they had one of those cattle cars, a whole bunch of them, and they were going to Fort Lawton. And they could not get off of those cars, but we could get out and walk around. And the officers on board, oh, they were just furious, because here we had all this free liberty, and able to walk around. And we got into Portland, we laid there for a while, and we finally ended up getting into Seattle. And we parked for three days right across from the ferry dock, on the railroad tracks there. But we were cautioned not to leave the area because they didn't know when they were going to hook us onto another train.

MW: So you were across the street from the ferry but you couldn't go home?

EH: I couldn't go home. I called my mother, and, "What are you doing in Seattle?" I said, "I'm going to Ephrata." "Where's that?" She didn't know and I didn't know. I knew it was out in the Columbia basin.

MW: Now, you have a story that you've told about, was it Ephrata where you were?

EH: Yes.

MW: Would you tell us that story?

EH: Okay. Well, the first pass that I got on, I caught the first bus out of Ephrata for Seattle. And I'm sitting there and I'm looking out the window, and here's two of the Koba boys. And boy, they came up and we were hanging on each other, and, "How are you?" and oh, gee, all this. And about that time, then the bus driver, he said, "Close the window, we're leaving." And I forgot to find out, but I did find out that they were in Moses Lake. And Junkoh Harui told me that there were four families there, and I said goodbye to the boys, closed the window, and somebody up in the front of the bus smarted off about "those Japs." And I don't use that word, but that's what quoted from there. And I stood up and said, "Those kids are just as white as everybody on this bus. They're good kids, they're born in Bainbridge Island, they went to Bainbridge High School, and I went to school with them. And they're good American kids." Sat down. The person that said it didn't have the guts enough to come back and apologize. But it was complete silence in the bus 'til we got to Seattle. And I've never seen those Koba boys since, and I wish I had, but Jerry told me that they both have passed away, which was a shame. But the Kobas didn't come back to the island. I think they lived in Seattle or something.

MW: That's a great story. What did Jerry talk about in the letters? Was it mostly just what he was doing? Did he talk about their situation at all?

EH: Well, he said that the quarters that they had wasn't the best.

MW: How did he describe it?

EH: That there was a lot of sand, and I think they ate in the mess hall. And so they had plenty of food and a place to sleep on a mattress that was stuffed with straw, I believe it was. And he said they played a lot of baseball, a lot of games, and he got a job doing something and I can't remember exactly what it was. But I told him about the life back on the island without them there, and that I was going into the service. And at that time, then I was an apprentice machinist down at the shipyard and I was working six, seven days a week and overtime.

MW: That's when they were building minesweepers?

EH: Uh-huh.

<Begin Segment 7>

MW: What effect did it have on island life when all of these islanders were forced to leave?

EH: Well, we didn't have the meat market.

MW: And that was where everyone bought meat, right?

EH: Oh, you bet. My folks would buy meat through the Eagledale market, and Johnny and Mo cut all their meat. And they'd package it up, and that's how Mom got the meat. And then Port Blakely store, Dora Seaborn, she was the butcher and also cut meat.

MW: So she was able to do some of it, but did it mean that people were going without meat when they might have had it since the Nakatas were gone?

EH: Well, Charlie Hoodenpile was the butcher for Emmanuel Olson at Bainbridge Mercantile, and Dora was a butcher...

MW: What... I'm sure that everything on the island was changed because of the war. I mean everything was, rationing, for one thing, and the war jobs and those kinds of things. What was the tenor of Bainbridge Island during the first years of the war, or the first year that you were there before '43 when you left for the service. How did the island change? Or did it change because of the war?

EH: Well, I don't... you know, working six, seven days a week, we didn't have too much time off. And you look forward to the dance out at Foster's, and then it became Stanley Park, did it? Yes, I think it did become Stanley Park. That was on Saturday nights.

MW: Where was Foster's?

EH: Out in Fletcher Bay. And I got to tell you about Ma and Pa Foster. When I was at Ephrata, there was a guy that ran the boiler room which was right next to our hut. And he'd stand there like this here and mainly look out. And he'd look over at me every time I'd come back from the mess hall. And I thought, "Boy, he sure looks familiar." So one day I walked over there and he said, "Kid, you're from Bainbridge." And I said, "You got to be Pa Foster." And from then on, we always had talked about the island and talked forth. And Ma and Pa Foster lived out at the lake. It was an alkali lake just north of Ephrata. Actually, the first one in the Columbia Basin.

Off camera: Soap Lake.

EH: Soap Lake, thank you. And every Friday, Ma and Pa Foster would invite me out and she would bring in a different girl for me to meet every week. So I was riding high, you know.

MW: You didn't even have your Model A.

EH: [Laughs] Well, I had my car with me.

MW: Oh, you did?

EH: Yeah. I had a '40 Ford coupe. And every other week, I would get a pass and head for Bainbridge with a car full of servicemen. They'd be hitchhiking along the way, and it was a coupe, and I'd have to open up the turtleback and put that up and then put two sailors back there at once.

MW: And where did they stay on Bainbridge? Did they stay at your place?

EH: Well, two of 'em would stay at our home. They were from Ephrata.

MW: And were there dances?

EH: We always made the dance at Foster's, but it was Stanley Park then. We tried to get down to the whole place, but I don't know, I don't think it's still there. 'Cause there was a bridge, they had a little store. And the ferry Haiute used to run out of Fletcher Bay. So you can drive right on down, but you can't drive through now. You went over a bridge. And no more. So how they get down there, I don't know.

<Begin Segment 8>

MW: The class of -- excuse me -- the class of '41, your class, is probably, if not the closest class I've ever known of from Bainbridge High School, it certainly is one of the closest. Can you tell us about the deep friendships that developed in high school and how they've carried on even to today?

EH: Well, Sadamoto was our class president in 1941, and he's still our class president. And whenever we have a class reunion, usually Sada will come out and visit, and he and Jerry would always get together, 'cause I think they were cousins. Now, I haven't seen Sada in two or three years.

MW: The rumor is he's coming out this fall.

EH: I think so, we're looking forward to it. And I told you that Tom Kitayama died.

MW: Yes.

EH: The day after Jerry did. Boy, what a blow that was. I knew he was bad, and his wife, Heidi, she and I would always email each other. And I hadn't emailed her, I'm waiting for her, to hear from her, and I haven't heard anything.

MW: It's hard. It's hard.

EH: Yeah, it's hard. And I think that now I can probably send her an email.

MW: She'd probably appreciate that. But you people have kept in touch. Usually it's a ten year reunion that classes organize, and it's a big deal and everybody gets dressed up for their ten year reunion and your twentieth, but you people have more frequent reunions.

EH: Well, we've always been able to get together.

MW: How frequently do you meet with your class members?

EH: Well, every Thursday, Jerry, Jim Johansson, Hal Champeness, Kenny Bergstrom, Carmen Barry, or Carmen Rereicich, and Silvan Munch and I. Did I name Jim Johansson?

MW: You did.

EH: We meet... and Jerry used to meet with us at Central Market and have coffee. And the reason we did that was to meet with Jerry. And we always talk about him when we have our coffee together.

MW: Once a week.

EH: And we still meet there. And I'm sure we will continue on for... I don't drive, so Champ comes down and picks me up and takes me over there. Then Silvan, he's already there, and he's got the table all set up for us.

<Begin Segment 9>

MW: When you... when you... when did you marry Norma? When were you married?

EH: '53.

MW: '53. And tell us about how you met her and where she was from.

EH: Well, when they built that Agate Pass bridge, and I like to tease my three daughters about going across the bridge, and Norma grabbing hold of me and wouldn't let me go home. [Laughs] But we met out at the Kingston Grange. She was working one summer at the navy yard, and she met Jim Tiffany. And Jim had dated her, and that's where I met her. And we used to all go out there and whoop it up.

MW: And she grew up in Poulsbo?

EH: Yeah.

MW: Which is about... well, now it's about fifteen minutes from Bainbridge with the bridge. But how long would it have taken you to get to Poulsbo from Bainbridge via the ferry?

EH: Oh, boy.

MW: It would be an hour?

EH: Well, I'd only been in Poulsbo by boat when we'd have excursions. And the school would charter the, I think it was a car, Lyle the second, the Port Orchard ferry, and then we'd go over. It was mainly football and basketball. And I think I went over there once too with the band.

MW: So the high school teams played each other.

EH: Yeah.

MW: But it wasn't as easy to get to Poulsbo as it is today. And last time we were talking, your wife mentioned that there were several families in the north Kitsap, Poulsbo area, and can you talk a little bit about that? About, I think she mentioned their returning or not returning.

EH: No, they never did come back. I think their name was Shintani, and they lived on a boathouse and harvested oysters.

MW: And I think she mentioned there was a family in Lemolo and another in Kingston?

EH: Yeah. And I don't know who they were.

MW: Uh-huh. But no one returned to that area.

EH: Nobody came back. Even Kingston, Lemolo or Poulsbo. But they have returned for class get-togethers or class reunions.

MW: But they chose not to come back to live.

EH: Yeah.

MW: Do you know the circumstances? Do you know why they might have made that choice?

EH: I don't know. See, Sada Omoto lives in, outside of Detroit, but he went and got his doctorate at, I think it was Wayne University, wasn't it?

MW: I'm not sure.

EH: I think that was it. And he has his family back there and stayed back there. The Kobas, they stayed in Seattle, the Okazakis, Kato, he became a pharmacist and married a gal whose family had a big store just off Madison Street in Seattle. So he's gone, and Tom Kitayama, you know about Tom.

MW: Well, tell us about Tom.

EH: I'll tell you, when him and I'd come up and visit, they'd come up every year and visit, they'd always come over, phone us up, say, well, I'll have lunch at such and such a time, we'd go out and sit on the patio and just talk about old times. And I have a root which is in storage, I've got to find that thing. But one of the Boy Scout troops that we took, we went to Mowich Lake, Mount Rainier, and we hiked up over Ipsut Pass down into the light, camped there for, well, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. We were there for three days. It was Labor Day, and I remember Tom and his brother, they went fishing, and they caught a trout. And they cooked it up and made it and then got sick. [Laughs] I don't know whether it was the fish or what, but they got sick from eating that fish.

<Begin Segment 10>

MW: When, about the time that the camps were going to be closed, the war was winding down and the people knew the camps were going to be closed, there were a couple of people on the island who suggested that they not return to Bainbridge, and actually be sent to some island in the Pacific, was the "Live and Let Live Society," I think it was called. Did you know of that?

EH: Oh, I knew of it.

MW: How did you hear of that, of Lambert Skyler and Major Hopkins, how did you hear? Did you read it in the Review, did people tell you about it?

EH: Well, I know it was in the Review. And I didn't know that Major Hopkins was against the Japanese until just a few years ago. You know, Major Hopkins, we thought, was a fantastic guy. He funded us in the Boy Scout camp. Well, I think they called it Major Hopkins, didn't they? And boy, Jerry was one that wanted that changed.

MW: Wanted the name changed from Camp Hopkins?

EH: You bet. You bet. And I told him he's got my hundred percent support on that, because that was, that was just bad.

MW: He had been Jerry's Boy Scout leader?

EH: No, Mr. Foss was Jerry's Boy Scout leader.

MW: So it was a different troop?

EH: Now, there could have been... he lived out around here someplace, I believe, didn't he?

MW: I don't know.

EH: Exactly where he lived on the island, I don't know. But they had a Sea Scout troop, and the Sea Scouts would let us take their boat out, and Major Hopkins would pay for the gas. 'Cause it was parked down at the old Winslow dock, and well, Elmer Necdole and some of those guys were in. If we needed gas, we'd go up to Hank Anderson's and get gas, five gallon can, pour it in the tank and take off and putt-putt-putt around Eagle Harbor. [Laughs]

MW: So when they were, when they were organizing their meetings and there was all that in the Review, you read about that?

EH: Oh, yeah.

MW: You were in the service at the time?

EH: Yeah.

MW: What was your reaction? Do you remember?

EH: Well, I wasn't very happy with them. I'd never met Skyler, I had no association with him, and I wanted nothing in the world to do with him.

MW: Did your parents, did you ever talk with your parents about that whole situation?

EH: Well, I'm sure we discussed it. Our parents were... I don't know of anybody in Eagledale that was against the Japanese. I don't think there was anybody, none.

MW: That didn't get, I mean, their whole campaign didn't last very long.

EH: No, no.

MW: Very short-lived.

EH: But, see, being in Alaska, I went to Alaska for, all summer long for seven years up there. And I wouldn't come back until September or October.

MW: Did you ever talk about that situation with Jerry or Sada or any of your other friends?

EH: Well, when I really talked to... Jerry and I talked about Major Hopkins, and boy oh boy, he was adamant against him. He was campaigning to change the name of...

MW: Camp Hopkins to Camp Yomalt.

EH: Yeah. Well, we would discuss it. He would be working, mainly up at, I believe at that time it was up at Market Foods. No... yeah. Because it wasn't too many years ago.

MW: No, it wasn't. Maybe five years ago.

EH: Yeah.

MW: So he probably was at Central.

EH: Yeah.

MW: Did your class ever, as close as your class was, at any of your coffee meetings, did you ever talk about the exclusion? Did you ever talk about how it affected the class?

EH: Well, no, I don't think so.

MW: Jerry said that at one of your official reunions, that Sada, as president, said something, made some speech where he broached the subject, and Jerry thought that was the first time that there had been any discussion like that.

EH: Yeah.

MW: Do you remember what Sada said?

EH: No. But I know he did talk about it, and I think it impressed everybody.

<Begin Segment 11>

MW: So on the day that they left from Taylor Avenue, could you tell us about what you did that day?

EH: I rode down there and I don't remember the time exactly. But right away there was a soldier pointing, and he says, "You park there and you walk up there and you stay up there. You cannot be down here." I says, "I came down here to say goodbye to Jerry." He says, "You can't even see him. You are to stay up there until the ferry leaves, then you can come out." That was, I don't remember how long we stayed up there, quite a while. But everybody was kind of furious that they wouldn't let us get down there. And you could see the soldiers down there standing erect with their fixed bayonets and loaded rifles. At least they said they were loaded. And everything went peaceful, the ferry left, that was all. And I don't remember who the people that were up there standing with me. I wish I could remember some of 'em. I've asked members of our class, but they were not there. Mike Tarabochia thought maybe that he might have been down there. And Gina Clinton or Gina... whatever her married name is...

MW: Ritchie.

EH: Ritchie, yeah. She thought maybe she had been there. Carmen Rereicich said no, she hadn't seen 'em. But at one of the class reunions, Ritchie Barr said he caught the next ferry over, and he got up on the overhead in Seattle and waved at the guys that they were loading onto the train. Now, I wished I had done that, but I had to go back to work.

MW: How many people were there saying goodbye, do you recall?

EH: You know, I've got a picture, I think it was from the P-I, and there's quite a few people that were standing up in the field. You know, if you go down there now, that open area is not there, it's all grown up. And where the dance hall was, there's a road coming in.

MW: It's hard to visualize today with all the trees.

EH: Yeah, it is. See, 'cause as kids, we'd be down there every day in the summertime and go swimming, then we'd go up and we'd roller skate in the old dance hall. And that dance hall was called Seaton's Hall. And the man that built it was, I believe his first name was John Seaton, and he lived on Taylor Avenue.

[Interruption]

MW: One of the things... the high school was very supportive of the kids who were forced to leave, and one of the things they did at the high school was to have an assembly the day after Pearl Harbor. Do you remember that? Mr. Dennis, the principal, and I think the superintendent was there.

EH: I didn't go. 'Cause I believe I was, I think I was working at Olson store then. No, wait a minute. I was working at the navy yard.

MW: Oh, of course, 'cause you were already graduated. You weren't at the high school then.

EH: Yeah, we had graduated.

MW: Did you talk with any of the kids who were there?

EH: Not that I can recall.

MW: That's fine.

<Begin Segment 12>

MW: You've been very active in supporting the memorial. Would you talk about why you think it's important and what you think the value of the memorial is?

EH: Well, the Japanese people have always been my friends. And to take American citizens away and put 'em in a concentration camp is what they did, and with loaded guns and all that, and they didn't deserve that. And when they asked me to be on the committee with them, and Jerry was the big push. "Come on, Earl, come on." And I'd always make my comments for them, because... and the park itself, when we were little kids, we went down there every day. Even when I was just a little toddler, my mother would take me down there, and Charlie Ness's mother would bring him down, and Ruthie Haugan's mother would bring Ruthie down and we'd all swim. And the park has always been back in my mind as a wonderful place to grow up. And to put a memorial in there for the Japanese, I think that's fantastic and I'm all for it.

MW: And what do you hope visitors will take away from the park experience, from being there and seeing the memorial? What do you hope they will learn from that? Or not really learn, but...

EH: Well, I've taken my grandkids down there, and I've always... they just adored Jerry. I'd tell 'em that that's where I grew up as a kid, and now you see what the park is going to be like, and with the bridges in there which is really neat, and when they put all their names up on there. And the thing that bothers me is we have some kids that are just destructive, and they'll put their graffiti on there, and I hope it does not happen. 'Cause I'd like to take a golf club and whack 'em one.

MW: There hasn't been any yet.

EH: Not yet, but when they put the names on the big wall...

MW: Yeah, it's a risk.

EH: Yeah, 'cause I'm sure there are still some dissenters that don't care, that don't know what it was like.