<Begin Segment 19>

MN: Now, after you harvested the sugar beets, you returned to Manzanar.

HF: Yes.

MN: And then you received the leave clearance. What year did you leave Manzanar?

HF: Yes.

MN: Do you remember what year? Was that 1944 that you left Manzanar?

HF: Yes.

MN: You left with a friend to Denver, and you met some "voluntary evacuee" friends in Denver?

HF: Yeah.

MN: And then you left and you went to Chicago.

HF: Yeah.

MN: And then Chicago did not appeal to you.

HF: No.

MN: But you also saw Togo there.

HF: Huh?

MN: You also saw Togo Tanaka at Chicago.

HF: Yes.

MN: From Chicago you went to New York.

HF: Yeah.

MN: And you stayed at the Sloane House.

HF: Yes.

MN: And you went back to Manzanar to get your family to move to Farmingdale, Long Island.

HF: Yeah. After I found the place.

MN: And then you also got three families from Arkansas, the Arkansas camp to help you at Farmingdale.

HF: Yes.

MN: Was this from the Rohwer camp?

HF: I don't know which camp that was. I was not in Arkansas.

MN: But your father wanted to be self-employed, so you found a place in Deer Park, and your family was in the flower business for over forty years.

HF: That's right.

MN: Were there times that you missed the Japanese American community?

HF: There wasn't any.

MN: There wasn't any, so did you miss them?

HF: Huh?

MN: Because there was no Japanese Americans, did you miss Japanese Americans?

HF: In a way. But we were too busy.

MN: How about your parents?

HF: Well, the parents, they didn't stay at Deer Park very long, because Frank, my brother, they decided to go back to Santa Monica (in 1947). So he didn't help, so my parents went back. But my parents were too old, so he asked one of us to go back, and Jimmy went back (in 1950).

MN: And then you came back to Santa Monica in 1987?

HF: Yeah, that's after we were in Deer Park for forty years.

MN: And you sold the business and then you came back here? Is that what happened? What was it like to return to Santa Monica after forty-some years?

HF: Well, it was all right. Why it was all right is my brother had built a home for my parents, so they were living in a comfortable, big house.

MN: Now, Japanese Americans received redress and reparations. Did you ever think that that would ever happen?

HF: What was the question?

MN: The Japanese Americans received redress and reparations. Before that happened, did you ever think that could possibly happen?

HF: No, I didn't think it could happen.

MN: And once the government gave out the apology and the money, what did you think?

HF: Well, I didn't give it too much thought.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.