Densho Digital Archive - Mae Hada Interview (denshovh-hmae

<Begin Segment 4>

Masako H: Do you remember where you were when the war broke out on that Sunday, December the 7th?

Mae H: We just heard the news. I must have been home. I just remember that there was a, they used to have Japanese movies being shown once in a while, and the man probably traveled with Japanese films and then narrated it without any sound otherwise. And I remember hearing that my uncle was there, and that's when he was taken to go to the Justice Department camps, so he was separated from his family too. Eventually of course, my father went there too.

Masako H: What was it like going back to school after the war broke out? Did your teachers say anything or your friends say anything?

Mae H: No. They were mostly, if they said anything, they were sympathetic because we were all pretty good students and obedient, and I think they were touched, too, that it affected us as students, uh-huh.

Masako H: You talked about your father being taken. What do you mean by being taken?

Mae H: I think all of our homes were visited by the FBI. That's who searched the homes and took out whatever they thought was evidence that maybe the Isseis were doing something subversive which they never did. But they became very nervous because, they even came to my bedroom, looked through all the drawers, and I was just a kid. So you ask about the, our feelings, we were frightened, uh-huh.

Masako H: Were you there when the FBI came?

Mae H: Oh, yes. I remember that.

Masako H: You said that you also had to ask, act as an interpreter for your dad?

Mae H: I don't really remember that well, but he wasn't taken immediately. It was later in February. I remember clearly, that I remember. My uncle was taken on December 7th, probably, or 6th, whatever. But my father wasn't asked to leave. You know what really affected me terribly was my mother sent me to talk to him in the county jail. It was devastating to see him behind bars. She didn't do that. She asked me to go.

Masako H: And how old were you then?

Mae H: Seventeen or eighteen. I can't quite remember at this moment, probably eighteen.

Masako H: Your father was put into jail. Where did he go from there?

Mae H: Montana, I believe, uh-huh. They were allowed to send letters which were censored, but they kept in touch. And they were moved often, those men that were, you might say leaders in the community in Portland who belonged to the, like every ethnic group has an organization that looks after their people. I found this out later. And he was, belong to that group. So most of them were taken to the Justice Department camps. And since they weren't trusted, they were moved from camp to camp; Louisiana, New Mexico, and I forgot what other places, periodically, but we weren't.

Masako H: So your father also was in the camp in Louisiana and in New Mexico. How did you stay in touch with him?

Mae H: Oh, my mother wrote letters to him, and he wrote letters back. He even wrote some English letters to me which I saved.

Masako H: Oh, you had saved them.

Mae H: Uh-huh, oh, yes.

Masako H: After your father was taken to the county jail, what did you and your mother and sisters do then?

Mae H: Since I was pretty young, I couldn't deal with legal matters. So there was another family with an older daughter that could help my mother with whatever had to be done to sell our, my father's store, the clothing, all the equipment had to be sold. And of course, there's always people wanting something for almost nothing. That's the way most of us in the Japanese communities had to get rid of their things. Farmers managed to keep their property, I think, most of them. They just let somebody else live there and take care.