<Begin Segment 9>

AI: Well, now, we're coming up here to the present time, and I know you have some grandchildren. How many grandchildren do you have now?

TI: We have six grandsons, lot of energy, and one grandchild -- a girl. And they're -- two of them live in the South in Mississippi, but the others are here locally. So we're lucky to baby-sit or relate to the grandkids and try to spoil them and leave. And that's the best part of, you know, you go back to your own house. [Laughs]

AI: Well, have any of the grandchildren asked you about your internment experience?

TI: Not at all. [Laughs]

AI: And have you said anything to them about it?

TI: A little bit, but again, it's such a strange experience that, doesn't relate to the kids now. And that means all the more we need to have it institutionalized in school itself in teaching and giving materials out. Otherwise, because the two kids in Mukilteo, it's primarily a white school. Such issues that I'm concerned about is they're raised there, and then the three in Bellevue, certainly in similar sort of situations and more so in, in Mississippi. I don't know if they would have materials that could help reeducate and give a more complete picture of pros and cons and what was going on. That will be a challenge in how to set up a way of binding that into the curriculum of the schools.

AI: Well, as you're looking back on all the things that we've discussed and the different portions of the eras that you've lived through and activities you've conducted, is there anything else that we haven't touched on that you'd like to talk about?

TI: You know, I haven't... I'm seventy-six years of age. I'm still concerned about how to help the newer, younger executive directors of the non-profit agencies, so I made a proposal to the Nonprofit Assistance Center to develop a mentoring project. And I sure would like to see that work. And so we set up a way in which the, which as minorities, we all help each other and support each other. And in the process, I've learned personally the limited knowledge I have and the desire to learn more. So I've done extensive book reading and analyzing data from the writer's source, current sources and in turn try to help other younger executive directors take advantage of that knowledge.

And so that's my last period of my life is how to transfer or set up ways so that others could help each other so they have the capability to do that and set up a system to do it. So thanks to the Densho Project, we may be a voice in the particular issues I'm concerned about even to this date. And thank you.

AI: Thank you very much, Mr. Ikeda.

TI: Thank you.

AI: Appreciate your time.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.