    
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Administrative
Information
Scope and Content Note
Biographical Information
Lineage
Selected Search Terms
Partial Interview Transcript
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Information
Resources
Robert A. L. Mortvedt Library
Pacific
Lutheran University
Tacoma, WASHINGTON 98447
Phone: (253) 535-7586 E-mail: archives@plu.edu
New Land
New Lives Oral History Collection
Eric Heikkala
A Guide to His Oral History Interview |
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Administrative
Information
Creator:
Heikkala, Eric
Collection Nr: t085
File Content:
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3 file folders
1 photograph
1 sound cassette
0 compact discs
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Processing Information:
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The
interview was conducted using a cassette recorder. A research
copy was also prepared from the original. To further preserve
the content of the interview, it is now being transferred
to compact disc. We deliberately did not transcribe the
entire interview because we want the researchers to listen
to the interviewee's own voice. The transcription index
highlights important aspects of the interview and the
tape counter numbers noted on the Partial Interview
Transcription are meant as approximate finding guides
and refer to the location of a subject on the cassette/CD.
Interviewed
by Donna Mallonee
Transcribed by Mary Sue Gee, Julie Peterson and Becky
Husby
Encoded by Kerstin Ringdahl & Amity Smetzler
Recording Quality: Good
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Restrictions:
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The
collection is available for research.
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Preferred Citation:
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[Collection
Number, Collection Title]
New Land New Lives Oral History Collection
Scandinavian Immigrant Experience Collection
Robert A.L. Mortvedt Library
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma, WA 98447
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This
interview was conducted with Eric Heikkala on August 27, 1981
in Vancouver, Washington. It contains information on family
background, being a prisoner of war, coming to America, marriage
and family, and Finnish heritage. The interview also includes
a photograph of Eric at the time of the interview.
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Eric
Heikkala was born on April 24, 1916 in Hailuoto, Finland, which
is located on an island between Sweden and Finland near Oulu
in the north. His parents were Viljo Heikkala and Fanny Sipila,
and Eric was the eldest of five children. After grammar school,
Eric began farming and then became a sailor so he could earn
enough money to go to school and obtain his captain's and pilot's
licenses. Eric sailed to England, Italy, North Africa, and the
United States. In 1939, Finland went to war with Russia, and
Eric was sent to northern Finland, where he was in charge of
six other men. When the shooting started, they rowed to Norway,
but the Norwegian village they arrived at was full of Russians.
The Russians found them, and Eric became a prisoner of war for
four months and twenty days. By the time he was released, Eric
was so weak that he had to be carried back to Finland. He remained
in the hospital for awhile and then started working on ships
again. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, the United States bought
the ship Eric was working on, and he was told to go to America
and find work. Eric stayed with an uncle in New York for several
months, during which time he met his future wife, Ida Pitkanen,
in Manhattan. Ida was originally from Muuruvesi, Finland. After
his stay in New York, Eric then went to Vancouver, WA and began
doing carpentry work. Once he was settled, he sent for Ida and
got married. They had two sons, Wayne and Roy. Both of the boys
understand Finnish, and Eric is very proud of his heritage.
He has belonged to the Finnish Brotherhood and has made several
trips back to Finland.
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Full Name: |
Eric Heikkala
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Father: |
Viljo Heikkala
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Mother: |
Fanny Siplia
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Paternal Grandfather: |
Kustaa Heikkala
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Paternal Grandmother: |
Erika Pirkola
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Brothers and Sisters: |
Anne Heikkala
Elsa Heikkala
Inkeri Heikkala
Simo Heikkala
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Spouse: |
Ida M. Pitkanen
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Children: |
Roy Heikkala
Wayne Heikkala
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This collection is indexed under the following headings
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Personal Names |
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Heikkala, Eric
Heikkala, Viljo
Sipila, Fanny
Pitkanen, Ida
Heikkala, Wayne
Heikkala, Roy
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Family Names |
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Heikkala family
Sipila family
Pitkanen family
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Geographical Names |
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Hailuoto (Finland)
Muuruvesi (Finland)
Vancouver (Wash.)
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Subjects |
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Family -- Finland
North McCormick American Line (Steamship)
Finland -- Emigration and immigration
Finland -- Social conditions -- 1945-
Finnish Brotherhood (Vancouver, Wash.)
World War, 1939-1945
Finnish heritage
Messiah Lutheran Church (Portland, Or.)
Russo-Finnish War, 1939-1940
Prisoners of war -- Russia
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Occupations |
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Carpenters
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Genre/Form |
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Oral history
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Institution |
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Pacific Lutheran University. Scandinavian Immigrant Experience
Collection
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The
partial interview transcription highlights important aspects
of the interview. Numbers on the left may be used as guides
to important subjects. Two numbers separated by a slash indicate
that the first number is for cassette and the second for CD.
07 ERIC SAKARI HEIKKALA: Born April 24, 1916 in Hailuoto, Finland.
Hailuoto is on an island between Sweden and Finland near Oulu
in the north.
37 PARENTS: Viljo and Fanny. Father was a farmer and fisherman.
54 BROTHERS AND SISTERS: One brother and three sisters. Eric
is the eldest. Anne, Elsa, Inkeri, and Simo.
73 GRANDPARENTS: Kustaa Heikkala and Erika Heikkala. He was
a farmer and a sailor. Sailed to America and all over the world.
This was before Eric was born. He could speak English and taught
Eric.
111 FAMILY NAME: You got your name from the place you lived.
If you moved, you'd take that name with you. His great grandparents
had no children. They took in a boy who they were godparents
for. The boy came from a large family. The boy's name was Heikkinen
but he took the name Heikkala when he moved in with them.
148 The island Hailuoto is: Small island, about 30 miles long
and 15 miles wide. There used to be a lot of people on the island
- about 2300 when he left. Now about 900. People fished and
farmed. A lot of pilots left from the island. You could go to
school and get your captains license and then your pilots license.
174 SCHOOL: Went to school on Hailuoto. Finland had just gained
independence. At that time, you still had to pay for high school.
He started farming first and then became a sailor so he could
earn money and go to school.
199 SAILING: First went to England, Italy, and North Africa.
Sailed between Finland and the U.S. when the war broke out.
English started war and then it came to Finland. They sailed
to South America and North America. In 1937, He'd served his
compulsory 440 days in the Finnish Army. Then he came to America.
Went back to Finland in 1939 when war broke out.
247 WINTER WAR: 1939 - Finland went to war with Russia. Eric
was sent to the northern most part of Finland. He was in charge
of six other men. They stayed there for 2-3 months, watching
for Russians. The Russians had thousands of men. They had a
boat and it was about 5 kilometers to the place they had to
report to. The morning they started shooting, Eric had to burn
all of the books with secret codes.
284 Their boat had already left. They found another little boat
and tried to row to Norway, which wasn't very far. Heavy winds
made it difficult to get in. They tried for two nights. Went
to a Norwegian village. They were hungry. Village was full of
Russians. The Russians saw them. There was nobody else around.
They went back to their old boat, which was upside down and
slept underneath it. The Russians
300 found them. The Russians took them to Murmansk for 2-3 weeks
and then to Petrozavodsk for about a month. Then they took them
somewhere else. He was held prisoner for 4 months and 20 days.
He got Typhus while at the camp. When they let the prisoners
go after the Winter War.
322 Eric was so weak that he had to be carried back to Finland.
There were 600-700 prisoners in the camp and about 5,000-6,000
Russian soldiers. The next war started one year later. They
weren't treated very well at the camp. They didn't get much
to eat. Their camp in Petrozavodsk was an old naval station.
The other camp was in an old Catholic monastery in Tradsovich
(?). Before they were moved to that camp, about 5,000 Polish
officers who had been there were shot.
370 LAND LOST: Although Finland had to give up quite a bit of
land, still it was amazing that the Finns could hold off the
Russians. The Finns were really outnumbered. Mannerheim was
the leader of the Finns. The Germans came to help fight Russia
in WWII. Then the Finns had to fight the Germans to get them
out. The Germans burned and destroyed northern Finland as they
left. Eric was in the hospital for a while after the war. Then
he started working on ships again. They worked out of Petsamo,
Finland's only ice-free port in the North.
415 After England started the war, they couldn't work at Petsamo
(The Russians took it).
416 They rented the ship, North McCormick American Line (sp),
registered a Panama flag, and sailed to North and South America.
426 STAYING IN AMERICA: When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,
the U.S. needed ships. They bought the ship Eric was on. They
told him to go work in America. He had to check in once a month.
He was still considered an alien.
453 FINDING WORK: He stayed with an uncle in New York for 2-3
months. He met his wife in Manhattan. He met a lot of Finnish
people there. Then he went to the West. Worked for carpenters
in Vancouver, WA.
467 None of the other members of his family have come to the
U.S. They still live in Hailuoto, Oulu, and Rovaniemi. He has
gone back to Finland several times to visit.
488 Eric had neutral feelings when the ship was sold and he
was told to find work in the U.S. He just wanted to save money
and go to school. He never got to be a pilot on a ship but he
has his own boat.
500 LEARNING ENGLISH: Didn't speak much when he came. Could
read a little. He took a bus from New York to the West coast
in 1942. Got to Portland, Ore. on the last day of February.
When he was in Chicago, the bus didn't come at the time it was
scheduled. He went to the information desk to find out when
the next bus would come. Nobody could speak Finnish, so they
acted out what was going on. This is how he
537 communicated. He learned English by taking a few classes,
working, and listening to baseball games on the radio.
554 Eric and his wife-to-be wrote to each other. She was still
in New York. She came to Vancouver, WA and they got married.
They have two boys both were born and grew up in Vancouver.
Wayne - born in 1946, went to the Wash. St. Univ. Roy - born
in 1949, went to Portland State. Has his masters.
579 CHURCH: They went to the nearest church. There weren't any
Finnish people there other that themselves. When the boys were
young, they joined a church in Portland that had a Finnish minister.
They still belong to that church.
599 FINNISH ORGANIZATIONS: They belonged to the Finnish Brotherhood
or "Veljesseuratu." They don't go very often now.
613 TRIPS BACK TO FINLAND: Things have gotten a lot better.
They have lots of relatives there. Write and telephone each
other. Parents still living in Hailuoto. Mother 86 and father
87 years old.
633 FINNISH TRADITIONS CELEBRATED IN AMERICA: They carry on
the same traditions as Americans.
637 IMPORTANCE OF BEING FINNISH: Eric is proud of his heritage.
Heikkala is hard to pronounce but it's good for business. His
sons help him with his construction business now. Wayne worked
for a bank for five years and Roy has worked for the City of
Portland.
665 FINNISH LANGUAGE IN THE HOME: He and his wife speak Finnish
around the house. The boys understand it. Roy went to Finland
a year ago and got along pretty well.
676 HE SPEAKS THE FINNISH LANGUAGE: Don't judge a person's intelligence
by his looks.
698 Circumstances brought Eric here to the U.S. He can't really
say whether he'd have come here otherwise, but he's happy here.
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