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MA: So you were very small when, when Pearl Harbor happened on December 7, 1941. I mean, do you have any -- I mean, you were two years old at that point. Do you have any memories of Pearl Harbor or anything about that?

AH: Nothing, nothing at all. The only thing I remembered is from Topaz, but before that, nothing.

MA: And your family was removed to Tanforan and then to Topaz.

AH: Right.

MA: Was your family able to stay together, your grandparents and your father and your mother and you?

AH: Yeah, our extended family, it was amazing. You know, there was so many things that happened that I never asked anybody about it or anything. I wish I did, my parents, but then no one ever talked about it, no one. But I know that my aunt and uncle, cousins, grandfather, we all lived in that same block, Block 12.

MA: And do you remember the living conditions, what that was like for you and your family?

AH: In Topaz?

MA: In Topaz.

AH: Yeah, I remember that. I remember it was a one-room, I remember the potbelly (stove) and the cot, we only had cots as beds. Let's see. Each barrack had six, six families, and we were... I can't, I couldn't remember north, south or anything, but when I looked at the building from the entrance side, we were the very last one on the left. And that was the closest to the mess hall, you know, the inside of each block was a community center for mess halls, latrines, showers and washing laundry. But our apartment was the closest to all the community facilities there.

MA: And your father, actually, worked as a cook, is that right, in camp?

AH: Uh-huh, yeah. And I think that's where he learned how to cook really quite well. So he became a better cook than my mom. I remember that families had a choice of eating in the mess hall with the other people, or they could put the meals in a furoshiki, the Japanese scarf, wrap it around and bring it home and eat privately as a family. And my parents were private people, so that's what they did. When he got done cooking and everything, he would wrap it in the furoshiki and come home. And I just remember my brother and I, that we just adored our dad. And I remember running up, both of us running up to him and wrapping our arms around him, and so excited to see him come home, and then we would eat there in our little apartment.

MA: So you ate your meals together, then, as a family in your...

AH: Uh-huh. And I'm sure we did it three times, breakfast, lunch and dinner together. Yeah, we were fortunate that the family was able to be with us. He built us furniture from scrap wood that was left from construction of the barracks, and thank goodness I saved two of his chairs, and I use it as a display, I go all over northern Utah giving presentations on Topaz, and I always bring 'em and people are really very interested in that piece. Eventually, I'll be donating all of what I have to the Topaz Museum.

MA: Did your mother also work in camp?

AH: No, uh-uh. No, she was a housewife, she was a housewife all her life. She did some... not in camp but after camp, she did some tailoring and mending of clothes, but it was a job that she did in her home.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.