<Begin Segment 22>

TI: Now, was your mother able to read this?

JO: She did say that she read it, but I, her... her dementia or Alzheimer's is, she's still in the early stages, but I don't think she really remembers what she reads, and it's gotten worse in the past couple of years. I think she did, I remember her saying about the middle chapter when she read it, and she may have read it earlier, before the book came out, I can't remember. But I remember her saying, "Well, you know, Julie, I didn't really smoke cigarettes in the camp," and I had to explain to her that the character was not really her, it was somebody that could have been a little bit like her. But she was a little clearer in the head then. But when the book finally came out, I don't think she really realized what it meant, that this book had been published.

TI: How about your father? What has his reaction been since the book's come out?

JO: He's, I think he's very happy for me. He's, he's very Japanese and very... he's just a pretty quiet man. And I remember somebody was asking me if my parents, they said, "Oh, your parents must be so proud," and I said, "I don't know." My father must have been nearby, I said, "They've never said that they were proud." And this was about the time when my father, we just got him in, we'd gotten him to use e-mail, and he sent me this e-mail like, "I'm so proud of you," like "proud" in all caps, like many exclamation points, "I'm so PROUD of you!!!" [Laughs] "Thanks, Dad." I mean, I know he is, he just doesn't come out and say it. He's just typically Japanesey. So, but I think he's happy for me.

TI: What about your brothers? What has the reaction been from your brothers?

JO: They're very supportive; they're happy, too. Yeah, no, they're very excited for me. And I was thinking, but one of my brothers teaches philosophy, and it's political/moral philosophy, so it does seem like we're sort of obsessed with the question of justice and how people behave. And then my other brother's a lawyer, so maybe that's... but they're, they're both very happy for me.

TI: So I'm curious, are you now being asked to be more of a, like a spokesperson about what happened to Japanese Americans, or you mentioned earlier the connections with Arab and Muslim Americans. I mean, are you asked to speak more along those lines?

JO: No, actually, most of the invitations have been in reference to the book and the book only. 'Cause I'm not an historian, so, but I inevitably get questions about, about how this book is resonating to now, to post-9/11 events. And I do get questions asked of me as if I were an historian and an expert on the internment, which, there's a lot that I don't know.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2005 Densho. All Rights Reserved.