<Begin Segment 7>

DH: And then you and Milly took the stand of continuing to speak out against the evacuation. And slowly I noticed that some of the Seattle press started to, and some Congressmen started to see your side of the story. Started to feel that, perhaps, the evacuation was wrong, for economic reasons...

WW: Right, right. But we were the only ones that were doing it. There was this, one... weekly newspaper in northern California that ran one editorial.

DH: But you took the stand through dozens of editorials. Did you, did you know that you were right... at the time?

WW: I beg your pardon?

DH: Did you feel that you were right at the time?

WW: Sure we did... sure we did.

DH: Near the end of the war, when they were talking about the some of the islanders finally being able to return here, then we have... then you started, there was, there was a movement to keep the Japanese off the island. And we were talking a little bit earlier, about Lambert Schuyler, can you tell us about that, tell us about him?

WW: Hmm?

DH: Tell me about him, Lambert Schuyler.

WW: What was his name? Robert?

DH: Lambert, I think.

WW: Lambert, Lambert Schuyler... yes.

DH: He was a piece of work.

WW: What?

DH: He was a real piece of work, wasn't he?

WW: Yes, yes he was.

DH: And you ran his, you ran his letter in the open forum and then you wrote a editorial against it. He was opposed to the Japanese returning here and...

WW: I beg your pardon?

DH: He was opposed to any Japanese ever returning here.

WW: That is right.

DH: Uh-huh, can you tell us about it?

WW: He said, "Put 'em on islands out in the Pacific."

DH: And then he organized a big meeting here. There was a big meeting, 200 people.

WW: Yes.

DH: Did you cover it?

WW: Yes.

DH: And you sent, you sent Milly to cover it, I thought.

WW: Well, yeah, Milly covered it originally. We thought, it was better if she did it than if I did it.

DH: Why is that?

WW: ...oh, my...

MW: Maybe not caused such a ruckus at the meeting, if Milly was there

WW: What...?

MW: Maybe there would have been a ruckus if you had been there, and Milly would have been less noticeable.

WW: That was the, exactly the reason we did it the way we did.

DH: You were getting to be quite well-known for your stand here.

WW: I beg your pardon, what?

DH: You were getting to be quite well known for your position, here on this island.

WW: Yeah, I guess so.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.