<Begin Segment 26>

TI: Going back, you're at Washington middle school. What, how did that feel to go back and perhaps see some of your old friends before, from before the war?

YN: It was exciting. I saw my Chinese friends, some of my Caucasian friends, and you know something? We didn't know enough to talk about what we had experienced.

TI: So they didn't ask you where, "Yosh, where, where have you been and what was it like?"

YN: Nothing. And I can say that today because I thought that was me. But I shared my story of working on internment (...) Garfield High School reunion (committee), all my classmates there, Jewish, black, white, others, said, "How come all of you, none of you, the most smartest valedictorians and everything else, how come you never shared the story?" And I said simply, "You never asked." But my Jewish friends came up, and I said to them the same thing: "You never told me your story." And it was not until it was validified by (a) director, of the Holocaust, that said the Jewish people could (not) talk (freely) about their experience into the '80s. You see, until you force the question and ask, you're always going to be saying, "No." (...)

TI: That's interesting. So not only did your classmates not ask, but did teachers either publicly or privately ask what it was like or what happened?

YN: And now as I share, because I have started the process, ninety-nine percent of the people can do a better job than I (can). But somebody had to break the barrier. Now I'm going to tell you what that barrier is. And I think I shared it with you in private conversation. I am certain that Jackie Robinson did not know what he had done when he spoke and broke the barrier of baseball. But I'm a Japanese American, and I had in my lifetime, to this past week, to see the two stories of two people: Ichiro and Martinez. The roar of "Ichiro" at the (Sonics) basketball game (...), you would have thought you were at a baseball game, for the crowd would not stop chanting, "Ichiro." Yesterday I was at the (Seahawks) game, and who raised the twelfth man flag (at Safeco Field) was Edgar Martinez. What Ichiro and Martinez experienced is why (the) Jackie Robinson (story is important). I'm glad he didn't know what he had done. And what I'm saying to the Japanese American community, when you break the barriers, you haven't broken it just for ourselves. You allow the other people that can't speak, one day the opportunity to speak exactly what (Densho is) doing, (...) if you were not here, I have no place to tell the story (or leave our legacy).

TI: So, to summarize, you're talking about Jackie Robinson, and his importance is by breaking the color barrier in baseball, opened the doors for people like Ichiro and Edgar...

YN: All people.

TI: ...and all people. And in the same way, you're saying that for Japanese Americans to speak out, will give voice to other people.

YN: All people.

TI: All people. So that's, that's the parallel there.

YN: And what I'm trying to tell you as a group, you are the cutting (edge), so that the other people can speak unashamed, (of) those horrible experiences (and loss of freedom).

TI: Good.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.