Densho Digital Archive - Bill Hirabayashi Interview (denshovh-hbill

<Begin Segment 18>

MA: And so in 1945, when the camps closed, what happened to your parents and your younger brothers? Where did they end up?

BH: That's when they came to Minneapolis. And then they got settled into Minneapolis, and that's when they bought a home, house in Thirty-second and Park over there.

MA: Was there a reason why they came to Minneapolis?

BH: Yes, 'cause Grant was in Camp Savage at one time. And another thing was Reverend Kitagawa, I think he was also Father Kitagawa. Anyway, Reverend Kitagawa came over here ahead of time to kind of look over things. Because Minneapolis was a town where they accepted the Japanese real well. And my parents were very good friends of Reverend Kitagawa and Reverend Murphy and all that. And that, I think, had the biggest reason to bring them up here. But we came up here because they were, being that they were living here, we used to come and visit them a couple times a year. And Anice said, "I don't want to raise Ron in Chicago. We need to go, like, out in Minneapolis where people are so nice and things are a lot different. This is why we came up, and she came ahead of me and stayed with my parents 'til she could find a house to buy. And we bought our first house in Richfield.

MA: What were some of the differences between Chicago and Minnesota, or Minneapolis people?

BH: Well, Minneapolis people are so laid back, and you didn't even have to know 'em. If they lived on your block, it's high like that. But in Chicago, everybody's in such a rush. In fact, this one fellow was a friend of my sister, I mean... what am I trying to say? Sally Nakashige roomed with my sister and Fumi Kitahara in Chicago. And she was a beauty operator, and she brought her... I mean, her brother came on a furlough. So she brought her brother over to the Sherman Hotel where my sister and Fumi was at, at quitting time. And said -- this is where Fumi and Kay, my sister, Helen, we called her Kay or Helen, they work here. So then her brother says, "Wow, this building," he looks way up, "wow." And all of a sudden, people started looking up to see what's happening, 'cause he's going, "Wow," country boy. [Laughs] I guess there was a whole bunch of people all of a sudden. And so we laugh about that, but, see, that's how much of a country bumpkins we were. And in Seattle, the tallest the building was the Forchet Tower, I mean, the Smith Tower back then.

So my brother Grant and my sister Helen went to Seattle with my dad to do some collecting, and he said, he took them to the Smith Tower. But before they left, my brother Grant says, "Don't you dare touch my bike." So that was it. So they went to Seattle, and then my friend Joe Schuller came up from across the highway and he says, "Let's go for a bike ride." Said, "I can't." And I said, "Grant warned me." He said, "Well, that's no problem." He says, "The stem for the bicycle is right here, it's leaning up against the house here." He went through the whole thing. So the pedal is facing this way, "Let's go for a ride," so we went for a ride. So we went for a ride. Well, I looked at my Mickey Mouse watch, and, "Oh, my gosh, they'll be coming back pretty soon." So we're pedaling away, and I missed the bridge, 'cause there was a ditch there, between the highway, a ditch, and then our house, and then there was a bridge that we had. I missed that and went into the ditch. Fortunately, Grant's bike was clean, so I could wipe it all off and put it back just the way everything was. Well, Grant being more intelligent than I am, he came, got off of the truck with my sister, or car, I don't know which one. And he says, "You rode my bike." I said, "No, I didn't." My mother was there. And he says, "Yes, you did." I said, "No, I didn't." I'm lying like everything, and he says, "'Cause I saw you fall." And being as dumb as I was at that age, I said, "How could you see that?" He said, "Well, I was out in the Smith Tower, and I put a nickel in, and I used one of these telescopes, and I saw you fall." And my mother, on the side, she says, "Baka shoujiki," which is "foolish and honesty." Anyway, so that's how it happened. But that's kind of a deal that -- I'm getting off track, but I just happened to think of that. [Laughs]