Densho Digital Archive - George Hara Interview (denshovh-hgeorge

<Begin Segment 17>

GH: But in between, I did manage to go on tours by myself. I met the Yoshi family who were our neighbors from the Washington Hotel, the Market Street hotel days, and they had a nice home, retired there, met them, talked with them, reminisced, met both their daughter and son eventually. One was married to a Japanese politician, a member of the parliament. Other was a... at one time their chief English speaking announcer on the radio. And I went and saw a family of my friend that I made in assembly center. His mother still lived near Hiroshima, and he had a younger brother. Found out he was near the epicenter when the bomb hit and he, you know, died, learned all about radiation sickness. He invited a friend, got together, and gave me a meal, and then took me to Miyajima, you know, which is close by. So I was one of the early troops that saw Miyajima and the temple and torii there, and I walked through Hiroshima, Okayama was bombed out. Most of the places were bombed out, and then I went towards Yokohama; and finally located my father's side of the family. For some reason, my father never kept in contact with his relatives, but I did meet an old lady who was his older sister, and they lived out in a thatched roof and everything, and I brought them k-rations.

And then I met my mother's side, younger sister, older sister, and their family. I went to Osaka and met a foster sister, and she had married well. Her husband was an editor of the Asahi Shimbun, Japanese section, lived in Takarazuka. Their son, little older than I was, was an officer in the army, Japanese army, but he made it through without getting killed. And later on, you know, he took us to different, a real nice person. So I really got to, you know, discover a lot about my family background, and the Japanese at that time are going through a horrible period. They're short of soap, food, and I had some chocolate, k-rations weren't that great, but they appreciated it, but they were more than hospitable. They didn't resent me being a Nisei, a Japanese in the army uniform come there as a occupy. They're glad to see me. They can talk Japanese, and I developed a -- or had compassion for those people, and so it was easy for me to converse. So a lot of times on these so-called political junkets with my officer, people we're dealing with were nicer to me because they felt they understood me better or I can understand them, you know. Couple times I would be out there engaged in some social activity with one of the entertainer and the officer, hakujin would notice that I was missing from the party, god, he'd go around screaming, you know, "Hey George, where are you, where in the hell are you?" And I'd be in some room by myself entertaining myself, not by myself but with a companion, but he was understanding. And so, you know, a lot of times you make friends with the hakujin officers that you go out with. Sometimes you end up, you know, pimping for them, secure, they wanted me to go with them on a date or something so they can converse with some girls, and some of them want to leave their wives and marry one of the, you have to sort of talk to them too, you know. You got to realize this is just part time.