<Begin Segment 32>

AI: Well, it's unfortunate, that more recently now, we have something that has been considered almost a parallel, which was the attacks of September 11th in 2001. And immediately, when that happened I heard on the news, some news commentators making a direct comparison with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. And I'm wondering, when the September 11th attacks occurred, what went through your mind? Did you think about that? How did it strike you?

RC: Well, I thought it was a terrible thing but Pearl Harbor never entered into my thoughts. Newspeople do strange things. That was one of those kinds of things that got people's attention and news, news writers will do that. You watch your newspaper and see (...) how headlines are written. Special people write headlines for newspapers. They're trained and they know (...) how to do it. And it's just an eye-grabbing kind of thing. I never, never put the two together.

AI: What about afterwards? I think perhaps, I myself was thinking that perhaps more of a similarity was afterwards that... in the way that Japanese Americans were sometimes vilified or ostracized or being confused with being called the enemy, even though they were Americans. Similarly, after September 11th, that some Muslim Americans or Americans of Middle Eastern ancestry received some very negative reactions.

RC: They have. They have. In my church, we have had, we had a new minister come, and he had members of clerics of all religions at his installation, Jew, Muslim, you name it. Basically to, to indicate that there should be unity. But it's hard to change people. People get set in their ways. I've used the word "change" a number of times and I, maybe I've overused it, but there comes a time in my life and I think, as I look back, that every change that took place in my life was for the better, for me, for others, maybe. So, I'm stuck with it. [Laughs]

<End Segment 32> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.