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JC: Sam, tell me a little bit more about your aunt that lived in Utah, that family.

SN: Yes. My aunt really was living in Los Angeles and had to move also. Her husband was a dentist, a very good dentist, took care of me, with my bridge work when I had the accident with the bike and truck. So, but she had her sister-in-law lived, named Hashimoto, lived in Salt Lake City and when the order to evacuate came, they decided to move, move in with the aunt, I mean, the sister-in-law. And at the same time, she called up my mother and said to come also to Salt Lake City. We had, my father had the means to move, and then they bought a house in Salt Lake City, and I already told you that they raised chickens and so on. Coming back to the family, the Hashimoto family, Mr. Hashimoto was the first person to start a bus system between Provo and Ogden through Salt Lake City, Japanese immigrant. He was an immigrant. He was not American born, he was not a Nisei. It's amazing. And he did something other business, I forgot what they were. But one big thing was this, he ran the business very profitably until the Great Depression came, the ridership just fell. He started the business in the '20s. He had one son, Ed, Ed Hashimoto who became a physician, a doctor. And of course in the Depression days, you know, there wasn't enough doctoring to do. So he got a position as a professor of medicine at University of Utah Medical School. Interesting story is about, he was a very good doctor. He was well-liked and so on. The story is that on December 8th, the day after Pearl Harbor, the physiology class, which were at least 100 students, were all waiting to see what the professor was going to say when he walks in the day after Pearl Harbor. And the class is, you could hear a pin drop kind of situation. So he walks in there, gets up on his lectern and says, "I'm sure glad I'm Irish," and the class started. That was a true story.

JC: Just out of curiosity, do you have other stories that people told about December 7th and December 8th that you remember hearing?

SN: Well, one thing I want to say is that at my university, I think I touched on it a little bit, the fact that... but the day, that day I would say is one of the most memorable days I'll never forget. I couldn't believe it. My friends there all said they couldn't believe it that Japan would drop bombs on Pearl Harbor, but all my dorm mates -- we were in the Sherri Roswell dorm. Every one of my dorm mates came and supported me, just hugged me, and said, "Don't worry, you're American and we're not, you know, going to be... we want you to know that you're, that we know that you're faithful and loyal, a loyal American." They all did. So that was very good.

JC: An incredible experience for you.

SN: Incredible experience, yeah. I'm quite sure I had tears in my eyes. So those kind of experiences in life I think makes a big difference a way a person grows up, I think. You have to have, I think you have to have some tragic things happening. I always felt that tragic things has to happen in your life that makes one into more greatness or a step above and so on. I just believe that. I read books about it and so on. One of the late books I read is about how a lot of men become very great when they lose their father at an early age, when they're very young, and those men have come up and become great. This is a lot of people, my memory is really giving out, like Ted Turner lost his father when he was only five years old. I think to men, losing a father at an early age is a real traumatic experience, I think.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.