<Begin Segment 6>

DG: So when your family was forced to leave, where, when was that and where did you go?

HS: You mean when, the first evacuation?

DG: Yeah.

HS: We went directly to Tule Lake. We didn't go to an assembly center.

DG: And your whole family was together?

HS: Yes.

DG: Were your cousins too?

HS: Yes.

DG: And what, so you were fourteen? A young teenager.

HS: About that, about that age. Thirteen, fourteen.

DG: What do you remember about that day and the trip? How did it happen?

HS: On the day that we left? Well, I felt bad for my parents 'cause I know they were devastated.

DG: Did it, did you go to a train station?

HS: Pardon?

DG: Was it on a train?

HS: Yes, a rickety old train.

DG: From Sacramento?

HS: We got on at, I think it was in Freeport, I'm not too sure.

DG: And it took you to Tule Lake, or Klamath Falls.

HS: Tule Lake. And they pulled all the blinds down.

DG: So you didn't know where you were going.

HS: Nope.

DG: How long of a train trip would that be, six hours?

HS: Seemed way more than that.

JS: You said you knew your family, your parents were devastated. Can you describe, like, how you could tell what was going on or how they were feeling? Did they show, express their feelings?

HS: Well, it was a time of hardship.

JS: Right.

DG: And your father's --

HS: You know, working all those years, you're trying to get ahead, and then all of a sudden, boom, everything's lost. And it was pretty sad for my father too, because they worked hard and all the money that he was making, most of it that he was making, he had to send to his grandfather in Japan to pay off his debts. I think that's what a lot of Isseis did. They sent their earnings to Japan to pay off debts.

DG: To pay off his grandfather's debts?

HS: My grandfather was honsho -- you know what honsho -- he was leader in the community, and what he did was he cosigned the loans, and then when the loans went bad, he lost everything. So my father had to send the money to pay off those loans.

DG: I haven't heard that. Wow.

HS: He did. My mother said he kept a record of every cent he sent. Never did get, never did get it back.

DG: No wonder you guys were struggling so hard.

HS: But they didn't, they were working so hard, they didn't show us how bad it was. In those days, we were happy-go-lucky.

DG: So how old was your father in 1942? Was he middle-aged?

HS: I think he was, I'd say, I think my mother was about thirty-five, fourteen, so he was over fifty.

DG: So what are your memories of Tule Lake?

HS: Well, as a kid, I had fun. [Laughs] I mean, lifelong friends.

DG: What were the --

HS: Still have them.

DG: Really?

HS: Uh-huh.

DG: What was fun? What did you do that was fun there?

HS: Well, if you weren't going to school, we just played around, get into trouble. [Laughs] But it was, for us, it was fun. But as I said, I felt sorry for my mom and pop, because they were worried about the future, what was going to happen.

DG: Did they have jobs in camp?

HS: My father worked in the mess hall as a cook, and my mother worked in the hospital laundry. And she loved her work in the hospital because the food was better there than in our mess halls. [Laughs]

DG: They had a different cafeteria in the hospital?

HS: Well, different cooks, I guess, and then probably the food was better, more appetizing for the patients.

DG: Did any of you ever need to go to that hospital?

HS: I did. I had my tonsils out when I went there. That was a terrible time because for anesthetics they'd give you ether. They thought I would never wake up. [Laughs]

DG: And so you, did you finish high school in Tule Lake?

HS: Yes. We went out in September of '45. I didn't attend the graduation ceremonies because that was before the ceremony, but the, they did send us our diplomas.

DG: And...

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2012 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.