<Begin Segment 7>

KL: I'm curious, you know, Japan was changing a lot, I mean, there was increasing militarization and Japan was just changing a lot in those twenty years when you were growing up. What was your take on Japanese history or on current events in Japan?

HF: Well, you know, that really didn't change until after the war. Because that's when, because of the war, all the soldiers went to Japan, and that's when it started changing.

KL: After the war began?

HF: After the war began, uh-huh.

KL: Were your parents keeping in touch with people in Japan?

HF: Oh, yes, writing letters. So I kind of remember some of the addresses. We had to write the address in English for them. They wrote it in Japanese, and then we wrote it in English for them.

KL: Who would they write to?

HF: They wrote to my father's sisters, he had sisters in Japan, so they wrote to her a lot. And then my mother wrote to her family a lot.

KL: Did they talk with you about what was going on in their families' lives?

HF: They probably did, but then I probably didn't pay attention, because we didn't know better.

KL: Were your parents concerned during the '30s when you were a teenager about relationships between Japan and the United States, do you remember?

HF: No, we didn't talk about it.

KL: Do you think they ever wanted to go back to Japan or do you tink they intended to be rooted in the U.S.?

HF: Well, my mother went back, you know, she took my sister in 1939, but my father never, he never said he wanted to go back.

KL: What was her reason for going back in 1939?

HF: Well, see, my sister was born in '38, and then my mother would have to go work out in the field, and she would have to leave my sister. And then I remember that my sister, when she came home from school, she would be crying because she's in the crib by herself and nobody's around. And I think that's why my mother decided to take her back to Japan. That's when she decided, well, the whole family would go back, and we said we didn't want to go back, so she just took my sister and went back.

KL: Did she plan to stay there for a while or leave your sister with relatives?

HF: No, she didn't want to leave my sister, so she brought her back.

KL: What was your sister's name?

HF: Sachiko. She lives in Sunnyvale now. She's married and has one daughter.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.