<Begin Segment 38>

AI: And, so really, as these efforts for redress were going on, lots of other things were happening at the same time. Some of the students were working for Asian American studies in colleges, and some people were putting together these reunions, camp reunions, and also there were some pilgrimages that were put together. And you told me earlier that you and Betty had gone on, was it the first pilgrimage to Tule Lake in --

AS: I don't know if it was...

AI: Or one of the early ones?

AS: Yeah. I don't know if it was the first or second. But we went to the one when they put the plaque up. Was that the second one?

AI: I think that it was maybe 1978 or '79?

AS: '79, yeah.

AI: '79? Okay. So tell me about that, how, how did you and Betty come to go on this pilgrimage?

AS: Well they, they announced that they were gonna have a pilgrimage to Tule Lake and there were gonna be two buses from San Francisco, one bus from San Jose, I think, I think they said three or four buses from Sacramento because the people from LA were gonna fly to Sacramento. And so, so then this friend of mine, the one that I still, I mean, I worked for, he says, "Hey, how about going to Tule Lake?" I said, "Are you kidding?" He says no, he says he wants to go. So then, then he said that this other friend, Sasaki, Aki Sasaki, he said he's going, too. So I talked to Betty and since Betty was in Tule Lake, she said, "Yeah, we can go." So then we said okay, okay, we'll go. And then this friend of mine said, "You better bring your sleeping bag." And I said, "What?" "A sleeping bag." I said, "What for?" He said, "We're gonna rough it up with the kids." I said, "You gotta be kidding." He says, "No." He says, "I wanna do that." So I said, "Oh, okay." So we took our sleeping bag and I think we slept in a, I think (recreation) hall. And I don't know, there must've been two hundred kids in there. And we couldn't sleep because, you know, we just, I mean, you can't blame 'em, people are so tired and everybody snoring and it's not, it's not just one tone, you know, it's a different tone, some of 'em high, some of 'em low, and I had a hard time sleeping.

AI: So this was probably hundreds of people in this large...

AS: Couple hundred, yeah, at least couple hundred.

AI: ...area. [Laughs] Well --

AS: So then, the next morning we got up, washed up and then by the time we got to the, that must've been a recreation hall, because we went to the mess hall from there. So, went to the mess hall, and now there's a big line. So then we got there and the young kids looked at us and says, "You don't have to stand in line," he said, "Go, go up there. Go up to the front of the line." So, so then, so we went up to the front of the line, we see there are the Sanseis and Yonseis, mostly Sanseis. They did the cooking and they made the breakfast so that when we went to front of the line and we got our breakfast. That one good thing came out of it. [Laughs] Because there weren't too many Niseis, very few Isseis and there weren't that many Niseis, mostly Sanseis and Yonseis. So when they saw us, they says, "No, no," he says, "You don't stand in line," he says, "Go."

AI: That's great.

AS: Yeah.

AI: Well, I guess because you had already survived being in camp already, then you shouldn't have to stand in line for this one.

AS: Plus, they saw us sleeping with them in the, in the recreation hall so all the more, I guess, they felt sorry for us. Said, "Get up there." [Laughs]

<End Segment 38> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.