<Begin Segment 7>

BH: So you missed out on your high school graduation. How did you find out about Executive Order 9066?

DH: Well, mostly through my folks and my brother. They're the ones that brought the sign home and said, "We're going to be evacuated on a certain day." So they're in the big rush trying to get rid of all the things to sell, we had to sell our tractor, truck, and we worked on the farm all that time before evacuation. We finished our cane berries, strung 'em all up, and cleaned the strawberries. He had already planted a few things, and that was for nothing. He'd just, people that took over the farm, all he had to do was harvest and go to market.

BH: Everything was ready.

DH: Yeah, everything was ready for him, and it was gone for us.

BH: So that's how you prepared the farm for leaving, how'd you prepare yourselves, and what were you thinking?

DH: Well, because I had all the brothers with me, the oldest one, Kaz, was already in service. But we knew we had to get rid of things, and we had to burn all the stuff, pictures and all the things that we didn't want, we can't take, we didn't want to leave it. So we burned all the pictures, Dad's pictures.

BH: That must have been a difficult process. What was your mom feeling at the time?

DH: He was sad all the time, so didn't want do this and didn't want to do that, but she was afraid of the FBI coming again, so she said, "Go ahead and do it." They asked, "Can we destroy this?" We had to keep this. Which, actually, we should have kept everything instead of burning. But in those days, you didn't know what was going to happen.

BH: So Kaz was already serving in the military, and where was he?

DH: He trained in Arkansas, and then he was, they were shipped in Wyoming, Fort Warren, Wyoming, and that's where they had all the Japanese guys stationed. And Kaz said all he's doing is picking up cigarette butts and cleaning general's yard and so on, like that, all that time, 'til they decided to form the 442. So until then, he was stationed in Fort Warren doing odd little things.

BH: And then Kaz became part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and went to Europe?

DH: Yeah, he was a trainer, trained all the new recruits and so on. Then he was already a sergeant, so they moved the whole battalion to overseas except new recruits had to stay and finish their training, but the rest of them all went over together.

BH: How did your parents feel about Kaz being in the war?

DH: Well, Dad didn't say much. He said, "He had to go in the service, he had to go in the service." He was drafted. It was a hard time for him because Kaz was doing mostly, he was working on the farm already after school, after he graduated.

BH: And as the eldest son, he held a fairly prominent position in your family then.

DH: Yeah, he had to hold the rental papers and all that. After he went in the service, Norman got to do, he had to go to market because Dad couldn't go to market anymore, couldn't travel.

BH: Because he wasn't a citizen?

DH: So Norman went to market, and he battled with the people, he got taken some time, and did all right. Mom and Dad said, "Well, you did okay. You brought some, you didn't bring anything home, back home." [Laughs]

BH: Getting ready to be evacuated, how did you decide what you were going to take with you?

DH: Well, we heard about we had to leave, and we had one luggage to carry our things, so Dad took us all over different places to find suitcase. Because Mom had their own suitcase, we never, kids never had it, so we went out, grabbed what I wanted, so I got my shiny old suitcase. That's what I took.

BH: And what did you pack?

DH: Just mostly... I didn't have too much anyway to pack.

BH: So mainly clothes?

DH: Yeah, my personal things.

BH: How did your Caucasian friends and neighbors react to news of the evacuation and your family leaving?

DH: Well, most of my neighbors, they just wanted to take over. They just came and asked for this, and then they said, "We're not going to pay you, we'll just take it." Some of the, Dad and my brother just held strong and they, at least they got something from it.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.