<Begin Segment 10>

RP: Do you recall the signing of Executive Order 9066?

FH: Kinda. Yeah, very faintly. Faintly.

RP: And then what happened afterward?

FH: Well, we were supposed to go to Heart Mountain like I told you, but the borderline was right on Las Feliz and Dad said, "Let's go sign up. They're not gonna complain. They want us out of here, we're gonna sign up." So we went with all our Glendale, Burbank, San Fernando, that whole area that ended up in Manzanar. Otherwise we, I would've never been with them. I'd be going to the Heart Mountain reunion. [Laughs] Yeah, I'd be going to the Heart Mountain reunion.

RP: What happened to, to the floral shop?

FH: The floral shop? A fellow name of Walt, no, Waters, Waters took over. And they came in just before we left, and Mom and Dad showed him the... I don't know if they had been in, maybe they had been, but not my concern. And I was in school, so... they came every day and Mom and Dad taught him bits and... basically, to open a flower shop, you just have to know the name of the flower and how to make your arrangements and you know, but the rest is up to you, whether you want your customers to like you or whatever, whatever.

RP: So they just took over the business for your parents?

FH: Yeah, so when we left they were already in, running the place.

RP: You remember packing up to go to Manzanar?

FH: Vaguely. Very vaguely. We thought, "Oh, we're going camping. We get boots." 'Cause they told us scorpions and snakes and dust and cactus and all this stuff, that you got to have boots and jeans and, oh, we got whole new wardrobe because we're going camping, right? Never been camping. We're going camping. Wasn't the same, but turned out fine. Made a lot of new friends.

RP: Did, do you remember your family number?

FH: No, I don't.

RP: Do you remember wearing those tags?

FH: Yeah, I remember wearing the tag, but I don't remember the number.

RP: Where did you assemble to go to Manzanar?

FH: I think it was the Glendale train station, way up north near La Crescenta. Is there, is there a train station up there?

RP: I'll defer to my La Crescenta expert.

KP: I don't think up by La Crescenta, no.

FH: It was somewhere up north. It wasn't over there where we lived. There's a gas, a train station there, on Las Feliz, right off of Las Feliz. I know they took, made a lot of movies there. We used to run down there to see 'em taking movie. It wasn't there. It was maybe at Burbank. It might've been a Burbank train station.

KP: Did you go by train, to Manzanar?

FH: By bus. Bus came and I think there were several big trucks that hauled our suitcases up. But it was like a fun thing for us. I don't know the parents didn't think that, but it was fun for us riding the bus. We never get to ride buses. Then we got there and it was blowing, it was cold, and people were lined up like, like, you know, whole long line in the cold, trying to get in the mess hall to eat. And that's what we had to do. It was a, it wasn't like the camping that I thought I was gonna go to, but it turned out alright.

RP: How about the trip up, do you remember could you see out the windows of the bus?

FH: Yeah. Uh-huh.

RP: The blinds weren't shut.

FH: No. I heard that the trains were. Trains had the blinds down, but I don't remember us having the blinds down.

RP: Were there any other people, Caucasians predominantly, that came forward and offered support or... you know, "Sorry this is happening to you," but any support from anybody else?

FH: I think our, the owner of our flower shop was, and he stored a lot of our things that we couldn't take.

RP: You had a vehicle? Did you have a car at that time?

FH: Yeah, but we -- no, we had a, the only thing we had was a panel truck to deliver the flowers in, and the people that took over the flower shop took over that. And I can't even remember how I got to the station to get on that bus. I was so happy I was going on a camping trip. [Laughs]

RP: So there was the four kids and the two --

FH: Mom and Dad.

RP: And that was your, pretty much your whole family at that time? No extended aunts or uncles?

FH: No, it was just, just four of us. And then our family friend, the whole Takechi family was on the same bus with us. And they were all friends from that neighborhood, so we all knew each other and it was like a fun thing going up to the camp.

RP: So was it a feeling that you weren't alone, that you were sharing this with... this...

FH: I guess so, but when you're seventeen and -- well, nowadays it may be different, but then it was like new adventure. On with a new adventure.

RP: How about the fact that your education was disrupted? I mean, you were already two years into your high school. You were gonna graduate in another year.

FH: I did. I did.

RP: Some kids your age expressed a lot of regret that they weren't around for their graduation.

FH: Well, see, I think I was in, I was supposed to graduate in that time of the year, time. There was a winter graduate and a summer graduate, and I would've been a winter graduate, but I didn't. A lot of 'em went to school and caught up so they'd be up to date, but I didn't so I graduated in the summer, which I could have... but still the same year. I graduated alright, and I had friends. Made new friends. So it worked out.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.