<Begin Segment 4>

AC: We were speaking about Frank Hachiya and you grew up with him?

MH: Yes.

AC: And you played with him?

MH: Yes.

AC: What was it like?

MH: Well, you know how kids are. We still remember what we did. We might add a little, not a treehouse but a little house, where we kind of got together, and so I knew Frank and Homer very well. And I felt bad when he was killed, but nice looking fellow, very nice looking fellow.

AC: And you said it was your mother who had rheumatism?

MH: Yeah. She had bad rheumatism. And sometimes she'd have to go to bed because her leg. But you know, it's strange. When we went to camp, there's one of these men, they had a, they do, what is it they do? Anyway, they massage --

AC: Shiatsu?

MH: I don't know if it was shiatsu or not, but she went to him, and it helped. But she said the first day after she goes to him, oh, it was so painful. But then after that, it kind of relieved it. But it doesn't get rid of it. It's just a temporary thing.

AC: And so Mrs. Hachiya would come and help?

MH: She wouldn't come to our house, but maybe she would take our laundry or maybe she'd fix some kind of food and give it to us. She was very nice.

AC: And after, she went back to Japan?

MH: She went to Japan.

AC: Before the war?

MH: Yes, way before the war. I'm trying to think of that, not Tenrikyo, but name some of those, it's between Buddhist and Christian.

AC: Shinto?

MH: No. It's, anyway, one sector. She had a church. When we visited her, she gets up real early in the morning about four o'clock, and the people who go to work come to service, and she does service, you know. She was a very pretty lady, but I think she's passed away now.

AC: But even though she went back to Japan, Frank stayed in the United States?

MH: Yes and Homer. Homer, no, Homer, when he was small, he went with Mama, and he was telling me about how hard it was in Japan for him.

AC: What was, what was he saying? What kind of things did he tell you?

MH: I can't remember too much, but he did marry a Japanese citizen. And so when we went to visit her, she, this wife of Homer's took care of Mother, so Homer went back and forth from LA to Okayama back and forth. And I admire that daughter-in-law to take care of Mother, you know. She wasn't helpless, but then she was aged, so Homer had her stay at her home.

AC: Is there anything else you can tell us about Frank Hachiya?

MH: I just know that we were kids, and we just enjoyed each other.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.