<Begin Segment 5>

DG: So now we'll ask you some questions about the war period. Do you remember hearing about Pearl Harbor and where you were?

HS: I was at home when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

DG: And how did you hear about it?

HS: I don't know if it was by radio or from neighbors... but we heard about it.

DG: And did, did people in this area have to give up cameras or radios?

HS: Right, all those were contrabands, and so what my mother did was she -- well, we had to turn them in, and...

DG: In Sacramento?

HS: Wherever, wherever it was. All those contrabands had to be turned in. We couldn't own them. And then, so my mother didn't want the authorities to think that she was loyal to Japan, so she burned all the correspondence and pictures and everything, which was sad 'cause we don't have those pictures, photographs.

DG: Of their families.

HS: Uh-huh. I think other families did the same thing.

DG: I know, but we haven't asked anybody and nobody's brought it up in these interviews. Were you there when she was burning those things?

HS: Yes, I was.

DG: That must've been very heartbreaking.

HS: Yeah, for my parents it was.

DG: And as it became clear that all Japanese Americans were going to be forced to leave, do you remember how your parents tried to make arrangements for their farm equipment or your possessions?

HS: Well, we didn't have anything that was that valuable. Farm equipment, they stored in my cousin's place because my cousin owned their own place.

DG: Who were our cousins?

HS: Who? Nishimura.

DG: Nishimura. So did you socialize with them? Like would the families get together?

HS: Yeah, we'd... yeah, on occasion.

DG: And where was their farm?

HS: In West Sacramento.

DG: So your parents were able to store things on their property.

HS: At their home.

DG: And then --

HS: But a lot of the, I think not only happened to us but to most of the other families too, when they came back, it's all stolen, vandalized.

DG: And that happened to your cousin's property?

HS: Yeah. Not everything, but...

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2012 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.