<Begin Segment 11>

MU: I wanted to come back -- just a little bit about your father's feelings, you know. You were the oldest son in your family. And in the Japanese scheme of things, the first-born, or the chonan, meant so much to the family. And here you are, going off to the army -- into the army and, God knows where you're gonna go. I just wondered what your feeling -- what your father's feelings were? Did you ever find out, later on, how he might've felt?

HW: Well, he felt that, he just felt that I wouldn't do anything that would dishonor the family.

MU: That's all he was...

HW: Yeah, I mean...

MU: ...concerned...

HW: That's what probably 85 percent, 90 percent of the fathers were thinking.

MU: Of their Nisei sons in the army?

HW: Yeah.

MU: Now, 'course again in the Japanese scheme of things, the first son means so much to the mother. You know, the mother gives birth to a son, first child. That's a great gift. How did she feel? Did you ever find out how she might've felt?

HW: I think she, I think when she came over, she came over to stay. Yeah.

MU: And that you joined the American army -- just a matter of course then?

HW: Well, it's a matter of duty. That's the way they looked at it.

MU: And I guess they felt the same way about your younger brother volunteering for the 442?

HW: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

MU: Pretty much?

HW: Yeah. Otherwise, yeah. He would've had a hard time going, but he had no problem.

MU: Well, you were very useful to your mother and father on the farm.

HW: Well, that's the way it was in those days, you might recall. Did the bookkeeping for Father since I was in high school, since I was a freshman in high school. As much, often as possible, get up in the morning and help -- kitchen duties, and...

MU: They must have missed you an awful lot. They, they were strong.

HW: Yeah. Well, that's the way things were, though. It's like when I was eleven years old, my father and my neighbor -- Father decided I would be the one that would drive the five, me and my two siblings, brother and sister and his two boys, to Japanese school on Saturdays and Sundays. Eleven years old. They decided that I would be the driver.

MU: Fantastic.

HW: No license, you know.

MU: [Laughs] But you could see over the wheel...

HW: Eleven miles away.

MU: That's great. But you were determined. Did you like Japanese school that much?

HW: Well, I think I -- what I enjoyed most at the Japanese school was, they had a encyclopedia. Every time I didn't have to open up tokuhon, or something, I was pulling out a book out of the shelf and going through it. [Laughs]

MU: Aero -- aeronautics? Oh, you're reading up on aeronautics?

HW: No, anything, anything, yeah.

MU: Gee, that's amazing.

HW: Yeah, they had it right there on the shelf, so man, that was a great thing. Never had one at home.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.