At the age of three Haruko Sugi Hurt's parents moved from Parlier, Calif., to Reedley, Calif., and settled down to farm in the Central Valley. The closest family to their house was the Stauffers. The fathers of the two families took turns taking the children to school, and when she turned 10, her family moved to Southern California.

Hurt graduated from Gardena High School in 1933 and had difficulty finding work. Finally, in 1939 she started domestic work in Beverly Hills. Although she had many Caucasian friends in school, she came to realize that those relationships never grew deeper. They never entered each other's homes.

Every day after school she attended Japanese classes, and continued this through high school. Only two other students graduated with her, so to celebrate their accomplishments her teachers took them out to Grauman's Theater to see a Charlie Chaplin movie. 

When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hurt was working as a domestic for a Beverly Hill's family:


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When I heard the news, I didn't know where Pearl Harbor was. I was that naive. "Pearl Harbor-where's that?" That was the kind of reaction that I had. I would stay the weekend at home and would return on Sunday. 

She [Her Beverly Hills employer] was very nice to me. She was kind and treated me very fairly. But it was strange. Hysteria was fomented by the news media and everyone was suspicious of all Japanese. One day, the lady of the house, half smiling, but serious too, said to me, "Haruko, you don't have a radio transmitter under your bed, do you?" [Oral History]
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, and Hurt spent six months in Santa Anita Assembly Center and then another six in Rowher Detention Camp. In April 1943 she applied for a job as a nursemaid in Chicago, and when that job abruptly ended she signed up for a typing position at the War Relocation Authority (WRA). 

After hearing about the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS), she sent in inquiry to see if they would accept her. In a reply, she learned that the MIS wanted to form a Women Army Corps (WAC) unit and wanted her to join. As she thought about the offer, the Army drafted her "baby" brother and she decided she also wanted to do something for the war effort.


On the last day of January 1944, she finally joined WAC. She attended basic training in Des Moines, Iowa, and was the only Asian in the training camp. She moved to Fort Snelling and waited for more WACs to join her. In the meantime, she served as a clerk typist for John Aiso, director of MISLS.


The WACs studied the same curriculum as the men, but in separate classes. Although their studies were separate, the WACs did share the dining hall--45 WACs to 3000 MIS students--and as a result became quite popular among the other students.


In November 1945 when she graduated from MISLS, the war had officially ended. The Army sent her to the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Section (PACMIRS) in Maryland where she translated documents. Hurt moved with the document section when it moved to Washington, D.C., and ended her military career in September 1946.

She returned to Chicago where she had entered the Army, and then paid for her own train ticket to Gardena, Calif., where her parents had resettled in their old house. A Caucasian friend had helped them keep the property in order throughout the war:


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She was single, a businesswoman. She voluntarily offered to take care of the family home--to pay the taxes, rent it out, and generally care for it. At the time, of course, we didn't know how long our exile was to last. My parents were so grateful, that they told her to keep whatever was left after expenses were paid. My parents owned their home and felt that they would lose it if there was no one to care for it. When my parents notified her that they were returning, she had the tenants move out, the furniture that she had stored, replaced, and the utilities reconnected under my father's name. She even met them at Union Station. Mother was surprised that their home was home-like already and when she opened the refrigerator, she found that the refrigerator was replenished with fresh food. [Oral History]
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Using the G.I. Bill, Hurt followed her dreams and entered the University of Southern California in September 1947. She received college credit for her language training and graduated in three years, then returned for a Master's degree in social work. In graduate school she met her future husband, and soon they both began working. 
	
Because of her schooling, Hurt had married late and could not have children. She and her husband decided to adopt two children of mixed Asian and Caucasian heritage.

