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BH: Now, we were talking about after the war. I understand that you volunteered for military service, but you were classified 4-C because you had older brothers in the service. So then what did you do?

DH: And I had my folks to take care of, but that's why they put me in 4-C. Then I figured I won't go in the army or anything, so I took odd jobs, like working in the railroad for I don't know how many months. It was an experience because I got hurt with a rock chip in my glasses, so the foreman, he put me on this rail car with a big engine in it. I got to drive that and haul the workers back and forth from different camp, I mean, from our camp, you know, it was all boxcars where we stayed in. And then we repair a certain area, we had to go several miles and then I dropped them off and I headed into a side track and wait for them, or I go back and haul ties and nails and all those things, load up and take it back to the foreman. So I had a good job with the railroad.

BH: So what line was this?

DH: This was SP&S, when it was Spokane and... it started from Portland, it goes from Portland on the Washington side, and all the way up to Spokane. So where I worked, it was near Walla Walla.

BH: And you lived in boxcars?

DH: Lived in boxcar with a bunch of guys. Then kitchen was a boxcar. And that's where I got my first social security card.

BH: Because you were working.

DH: Yeah.

BH: So tell me about your eye injury.

DH: Well, you were using picks to get the rails onto the ties, and then you hit it wrong, you get piece of metal or piece of rocks flying, and went right in my eye and broke my glasses. So I got this job, since I can't... people on this cart, they had a cart that goes back and forth, he was an inspector or something. He drives his own cart, so he picked me up and went to the hospital in Pasco. And I had it, went through, he cleaned it out. Then the next couple days, he had me stay at his house, and he had goose dinner recipe because he picked up a goose that got hit by the train, he said. I don't know, I don't think so. He fed us the goose, roast goose. And a couple days later he took me back to the boxcar.

BH: And what were your brothers doing?

DH: Well, Shig was already in the service. Only brother I had... Victor was already in service. My brother had, was in Detroit. He didn't pass his physical, so he was, he went to Detroit to go to school, so he was in Detroit.

BH: And were the younger ones with your parents?

DH: Yes, they were still in school.

BH: And your parents decided not to return to Fairview after the war?

DH: No, he had more friends in Ontario area that he met in camp. And he had a sponsor, a place to stay and a place to work. So he decided he's got to get out because they're closing the camp pretty soon. So in, I think it was March, and brought 'em out to Fairview. Not Fairview, I mean, Fruitland, sorry.

BH: Then at some point, you got drafted.

DH: Yeah, after a while, I was helping Dad on the farm trying to get things organized. And then I get my draft notice and I had to go in the service. [Laughs]

BH: So where'd you report for training?

DH: I went to Fort Lewis, and then I went to Arkansas, and then I was in Louisiana and that's where I got hurt. Then they put me in the hospital there, and then they took me out because I had surgery there and it didn't work out. So they sent me to San Antonio, Brooks General Hospital in San Antonio. And I was there most of my career. [Laughs] Because I almost lost my arm.

BH: That was quite an injury then.

DH: Yeah, I had something like thirty-some surgery, different kinds of surgery, nerve, bone, and muscles. But I made it through. But after I got a, discharged me, and the same year after I got discharged, a friend of mine, we were in a car wreck, and I reinjured my arm. So I went into Boise Veterans Hospital and spent almost two years there. When they got rid of me, they wanted me to get out of there, so they put me on this rehab, gave me an aptitude test and so on and said, "You belong to this school. We're going to take you." I said, "Where?" "University of Idaho." I said, "What?" So I was there for summer school. I was good in one thing, but I was bad in the other thing, but he said, "You stick with it." So he signed me up again for the fall semester. We were on the semester system. And I barely made it through that. I got more As than Ds, but I made it through. [Laughs]

BH: And what were you good at on that aptitude test?

DH: They said I was good at, they wanted me to be, they had a good architect school there, because they heard that I went to Benson architect school. Or be some kind of artist or any type of work that you could do with hands and so on. So I said, "I don't care. I don't think I'll be there very long, so I'll take you up on it." So I stayed, and I made it through first year, and second year I did well, third year I got some great, four-point, so I stayed there. In fact, I went to school for five years, almost five terms.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.