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CN: Hi. Yes, my name is Camila and I'm a junior at the University of Washington. As Bill said, I'm interning with Seattle JACL on this project, and it's something I'm interested in because it relates to my own family history. And I think it's really valuable to hear the perspectives and stories of people who experienced it and were alive during like, this time after the 1940s. In like, in the fights for justice, and like the '50s, '60s, '70s. Yeah. So thank you again for having the time for us to interview you today. I'm excited to hear what you have to say.

LH: Okay.

CN: Okay. Are we good? Is it okay if I start asking questions?

LH: I think so. Nice to meet you.

CN: Nice to meet you. So I was wondering if you could start us off by telling us a little bit about yourself and Phil and your experiences growing up in your families?

LH: I probably won't dwell too much on Phil's background because I have provided the written information, and I think there's quite a bit there that would fill in what you need to know, although if there are more questions, I'd be glad to answer them. As for me, I was born in Seattle. I am the product of a mixed marriage. My mother was white, my father, Filipino. I grew up at a time when mixed marriages were very, very frowned on. And when we would walk down the street, people would often yell obscenities at us. I had instances where some people came up to my parents, looked at my sister and I, and my sister has passed away when she was seven years old. They would look at my sister and I and say "What a shame to bring such children into the world." I heard that many time, and it damaged my own self-esteem as I grew up. I also was often referred to as "half-breed." I never liked that term. It seemed to indicate I was some kind of animal. But that's what I grew up with. And I heard it often. We experienced a lot of difficulty. I grew up at a time when it was depression. There were limited opportunities for my folks and they were not well-educated. My father had a third-grade education, he came from the Philippines. My mother had an eighth-grade education. And on top of that with a mixed marriage and the Depression, and little youngsters, they had a struggle. The struggle took its toll on their marriage as well. And so I had a difficult upbringing.

And it was when we went to look for housing, they were turned away because people didn't want Filipinos to be renting their property. So it was difficult to find a place to live. And at that time, not many people had cars. So we were limited to the immediate area. We were at, at that time, we stayed at the Yesler Terrace Apartments and so we would have to walk around the area to look for places that might rent to us, and were turned away many times. Finally, a couple of women who were older -- at least, they seemed elderly to me at the time, but I don't think they were that old -- they told us, they didn't want us. But they said, "But we'll take a chance on you. And we expect you to be quiet, and to make sure your children are well behaved, and we'll give it a try." So we were able to rent from them at that time. I... it's strange to me that I don't remember the inside of the dwelling that we lived in at that time, but I do remember the inside of the house of the people we were renting from, because eventually they began to melt and feel rather fond of us as children, and invite them into their home. They took us to the church that they went to, and they were very excited when they... because they heard my sister and I playing with our when skate just outside our rental house. And we were singing the song we heard at the church, which was "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know." They were very pleased to hear us singing that, and that made them even more endeared to us. So they began treating us much nicer, and they warmed up to my parents as well. There's a lot more that I could say, in my childhood, but I'll perhaps leave that for another time. I do recall when we finally got a house of our own, and we were poor, so it was it was not much of a house. And at that time, I remember it cost $1,000. We were in a multiracial neighborhood.

And the... there was one day, my folks were both at work, I had always been told never to answer the door to strangers. At seven years old, there was a strong pounding on the door repeatedly, and there began to be yelling at me to open the door, that it was important that I opened the door. Finally, I did open the door. I was frightened. I didn't know what to do. I opened the door, and two military rushed in and said, "Are there any Japanese here?" I said, "No." And so they proceeded to open the drawers of our chests, chest of drawers, and rifle through everything in in the drawers. And I recall as a child, I was worried that my folks were going to be mad at me because they were doing that and I had let them in. But they went throughout, made a mess, and looked everywhere. And they kept saying "Are you sure there are no Japanese here?" And I said "No."And so they finally left. I went out onto the porch, and I felt very sad because I saw many Japanese in the street. Mostly I saw children and women. They had their suitcase, and many of them had their head down and were quietly crying. I didn't know what was going on, and I felt very, very sad about it. So that was when the evacuation was taking place. During the war years, I understand many of the Filipinos and the Chinese wore, "I am Chinese," "I am Filipino," buttons so that they would not be the target of hostility. I have not seen the buttons, but I had heard about them.

And so that is a little glimpse of my life in my early days. As I said my sister died when she was seven, I was five, and I was raised an only child. I had a problem with my own self image and where I fit in. At that time, I did not have much support from anyone, and it was very difficult growing up. But then we all have our problems. So as I think that unless you have questions on Phil and his incarceration in the concentration camp, I think I will go lightly over that. Do you have any questions for me on that?

CN: I think as you said, that was mostly covered in the...

LH: Right.

CN: ...documents and the obituary that we got.

LH: Okay.

CN: I just wanted to ask you a quick question about your experience, like, during the war, and if you noticed, like really visible hostility towards like Japanese and Japanese Americans.

LH: During the war?

CN: Yeah.

LH: Well, of course, during the war, they were imprisoned. And during the war years, for some reason, I was sent to live with my aunt in Oregon. I never understood why. She was a widow, she was also poorly educated. We lived in a tent, and she picked hops in the hop season. At the end of the hop season, we lived in a shack where there was no running water, no plumbing of any kind. We used kerosene lamps. And there were no autos. So at that time, I wasn't really too aware of what was going on as far as the war was concerned. I do recall that sometimes my father would get letters from relatives in the Philippines that made him very sad about their treatment by the Japanese there, when they had invaded the Philippines. And he would cry, and he would get mad. But then he said, "But it's not the fault, it's not the fault of the Japanese here. They're good people." So at least he could see that, and that was a good thing. When the Japanese did return, I noticed that they would go down the street hurriedly if they saw anyone that was not Japanese, and keep the head down. There was one woman at the end of a block near us, who assisted them, provided living space. And they helped them to, helped them to transition back into life here in Seattle. But I never really knew them. It was not until many later years that I had more contact with Japanese. I think, was there another part of that question that I missed there? Okay.

CN: No, you covered it. Thank you.

LH: Okay.

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