<Begin Segment 24>

KL: Are there things we've left out about Topaz? Before I ask you about leaving, was there anything else that sticks in your memory from Topaz?

HK: As I said, we were there just for six months, so it was a very short time. But I know my father thought the food was despicable. (...) That's why he said, "We can't raise children on this kind of food. Children can't grow properly without good food." So that's why he found the advertisement in the newspaper for, they called truck farming, so that he could get a rent-free house and then grow vegetables and chickens. So that's what he decided, that he would take us to Nebraska. That's how we ended up in Nebraska.

KL: Did he work for a salary in Topaz?

HK: In Topaz, no. No, he didn't --

KL: He was at home looking for opportunities.

HK: (Yes), so that's why he was looking for work again. So then he decided that, since he was a farmer since the time he was young he knew how to grow everything, and so he decided that it would be best for us to move to Nebraska. That's how we --

KL: And where in Nebraska did you go?

HK: I think first we went to Bellwood, as I remember, and then I think we were there only for a short time because I think, I don't remember exactly the situation, but anyway, we were there for about, maybe less than a year. Then Gibbons, Nebraska, we were (there) too. And then finally we ended up in Silver Creek, Nebraska, because there was a restaurant owner that had this acreage and she had a two-story house, big house that we could live in, and then all this acreage that we could grow any vegetables and fruits and then also chickens. And then she had a cow too, so we had a cow for milk, and then we even had pigs and duck and geese, so it was a real farm.

KL: Was it supplying the restaurant, primarily? Or were there other markets?

HK: Right, no it was to supply the restaurant. So we had to get up early before school and then we had to pluck the feathers off the chickens, clean the chickens, and then when we went to school everybody (said), "I smell chicken. Why does it smell like chickens?" 'Cause we all smelled like chickens. [Laughs]

KL: It's a strong smell. I went to college in a poultry area.

HK: Because the restaurant had to have an order of chickens, they had to have their chickens.

KL: And you helped with that, all you kids.

HK: (Yes), all of us kids, 'cause with our little fingers we could pick off the feathers. But then we didn't realize that we smelled like chickens. [Laughs] But we went to a little one-room school, so of course in one room, which is a little bigger than this, well, both rooms together, one-room school. You've seen, I'm sure, in Nebraska you've seen the one-room schoolhouses.

KL: What, what was the school's name?

HK: The one I remember is Silver Creek, and I remember our teacher's name was Patricia something. I have a picture.

KL: That's funny you remember her first name. Did you call her by her first name?

HK: I think we called her (...) I think she was Miss Patricia something, but I don't remember the last name.

KL: Who were your classmates?

HK: I think the only family that I remember is the Dobsons, Sylvia and then her brother. They were Dobsons, 'cause they used to play with us afterwards, on weekends and things. And they used to have horses, I remember, and we used to ride their horses. That was fun.

KL: You started to answer this already, but how was school and your classmates and your teachers in Silver Creek different than in Twin Falls? Or was it? It sounds like it was.

HK: It was much better. People were very friendly, and then they would ask us, "What are you?" And then so our parents said, "Just tell them you're Americans." I said we're Americans. So they thought we were Native Americans. [Laughs] (...) "Don't tell 'em you're Japanese." So we never mentioned Japanese, so we just said, "We're Americans." So they thought we were Native Americans. We never let them know we were Japanese, 'cause we didn't want to have the experience we had in Twin Falls.

KL: Do you think you would have, or do you think it would've been different?

HK: I don't know if we would have, if people would've treated us differently if they knew we were Japanese or not. I don't know what the climate of hysteria was in Nebraska at that time. You were born and raised in Nebraska?

KL: I wasn't born there. My dad was stationed there twice with the Air Force.

HK: Oh, at the Air Force.

KL: Yeah, and it was further, it was closer to Omaha than where you were. You were probably more rural.

HK: My brother-in-law was stationed at Omaha Air Force Base, (with) my sister, we stayed with them when we traveled from Oregon to New York. When we moved, we stayed with them in Omaha.

KL: How, did you see any of the places you had lived?

HK: No, we didn't, 'cause we had this big rental truck and we had all our things in the rental truck. So we, (...) I remember, took us to a lake and we went boating on a lake near Omaha. But all our memories, all my memories of Nebraska was that people were very kind and even, we went to the Methodist Church in Silver Creek, I think it was, and, in fact, the organist would pick us up for Sunday school, to take us to Sunday school.

KL: Did the piano come with you to Nebraska, and all the different towns?

HK: Yes. Oh yes. And my mother was able to give piano lessons to the neighborhood kids, and to all of us. (Yes), that piano came with us everywhere.

KL: Were there other Japanese Americans at all, in Silver Creek?

HK: No, there weren't. That's why we, I think, we got by with being Native Americans. They didn't know we were Japanese.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.