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HH: You say that you left Poston early, and you came to school in Philadelphia. What are the details of that?

NH: Oh, when the fall semester started, or winter semester or school years started in the camps, I had the opportunity to go to a private Quaker boarding school in the Philadelphia area. And I started to process my paper early in late summer so I could make the fall school year. However, I had difficulty because I had to get Eastern Defense clearance, and that didn't come 'til around December. So when I finally came to Philadelphia, I was about three months behind. So the school was good enough to hold some of the faculty there, and we made up the lost time doing the Christmas recess. And when the Christmas recess was over, then I was up with the rest of the class. And I stayed at Westtown for a period of about a year and a half, and by then, I had reached the age of eighteen. And the draft board got a hold of me and I had to go. The school, and we tried to delay my induction until June because it was, from February to June was what's left of my school year, but the draft board there refused our request, so I had to leave. But before I left school again, accelerated my courses, and I made up everything that the class would have been taught for that rest of the year, and I left. And my parents went to the graduation to receive my diploma.

HH: You came to Philadelphia by yourself, you were about seventeen years old.

NH: That's right, that's right.

HH: Was that a tough trip to make?

NH: No, I had a little advantage here because my aunt, Mary Toda, who was at George School, which is another Quaker boarding school, she was working there and she was already here when I arrived. So I wasn't coming to a city without anybody to look after me.

HH: All right, so you felt that you had some kind of support, some kind of resource.

NH: That's right.

HH: So it sounds like the rest of the family came to Philadelphia while you were at Westtown.

NH: That's right, they followed soon thereafter I arrived, and they lived in, first they were in a hostel and then they found a place, apartment, and my father was able to find employment in a printing place called Kunio Press up in North Philadelphia, which is no longer in existence now, but that's where he had his employment.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.