<Begin Segment 12>

TI: Okay, so we're now into the second hour, interview with Daryl Keck. And the way we ended up the first hour was you were talking about how, you know, in some cases, our country needs to be, in some cases, to move forward, it's going to make mistakes. And that, although it's unfortunate mistakes are made, you don't want a country or person or group to be stagnant, not to, to push and try new things, and so that's kind of a, kind of a natural good process when you are trying new things. But, now, in the case -- I'm jumping forward now, I'm going to jump to the 1980s -- because what happened during that period was more information started coming out of these, some of these more confidential documents, that indicated perhaps that the government made a mistake by putting all these people in camp. And so what the government did was they held hearings, they, they had researchers, and then what Congress concluded in a report was that, well, that the government did make a mistake. And they then gave that, passed a, sort of a law saying that it was a mistake, and then President Reagan signed it in 1988, it was the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, where, where he said that the government made a mistake and apologized to Japanese Americans. I wanted to get your sense in terms of how you feel about that. Do you think that was a good thing for the government to take a look at, at what happened and in doing so, admit that they made a mistake and make an apology?

DK: Well, I read all of that on the commission and read a lot of the, the testimonies. And I don't think it was... if I would have seen it in the paper -- I don't think it was publicized enough -- if I'd have seen it in the paper, I'd have had a much more of a voice in that than I have in this. The, not... from what all I've read of the days between Pearl Harbor and February the 19th, there was lots and lots of high officials discussing ways and means of how to do this. And several of 'em said they didn't want to be involved in American citizens being put behind barbed wire. And so from that standpoint, I don't think the commission was well enough advertised. They could have got lots, lots more testimonies in support of the actions that were taken. And so I think now, trying to write something, like I said before, forty or sixty years after it happened is, is impossible, and there has to be a lot of guessing, so I think there's a lot of guessing in the testimony and the records that were showed. I've read both sides, the, it's pretty compelling from the Japanese Americans' side of it, and I read Colonel or General Lowman's book also of a reasoning why it was, the commission wasn't, didn't answer all the questions. There could have been a lot more questions asked, lot more questions answered.

TI: This is about, like, the MAGIC cables?

DK: Yeah, the MAGIC cable and all of that. So as far as what that's done, and as far as compensation, I didn't agree with that, because I spent nearly four years and haven't had any compensation, so I don't see the reasoning for the compensation. And if, if apology that, if, like I said, a country or a person or an organization that doesn't make mistakes don't get nothing done. So as far as apologizing for mistakes, I think the president didn't know all the facts, or he wouldn't have made it. I think the same way with our governor. I don't think that the, what he signed as a proclamation for February the 19th, it was the wrong way to go. I think if they want to find a cause, Iwo Jima lost American citizens, like 27,000 in just a short time as far as hardships or as, being compensated for something, I think them widows and children probably should have had more compensation than they got. So no, I don't, I don't feel good about the...

TI: So let me see if I can summarize a little bit. So, so looking back at, at the government's decision, what you're saying is back in the '80s, it was perhaps faulty that one, they didn't get enough, enough response or information from different perspectives, that perhaps it was one-sided in terms of the testimonies that, that came out. And that if more of that information were available, that perhaps the government's findings would have been different, that instead of...

DK: Right.

TI: And as part of that, you're against the payment, the redress payment, which... so every Japanese American who was in these camps received twenty thousand dollars, is the amount. And then I wasn't quite sure, and the apology you felt was also maybe not needed? Or you felt that was okay? I wasn't quite sure what you...

DK: Well, apology for the president to sign that order, with the information he had -- and I don't, I don't think he needed to apologize. I mean, there was a reason.

TI: Okay, so, so even the apology, then. And so part of it was you were saying that, essentially, the analysis that was done back in the '80s and even more currently, you still feel isn't really hitting the nail on its head. You think it's still like -- and I think you mentioned earlier -- it's hard to do this sixty years after the fact, and that perhaps... so do you think in some ways history is being changed in some ways? Or how... I'm trying to get a sense because the vast majority of historians, politicians and others, if you ask them, would say what happened to Japanese Americans was wrong, it was right to apologize, it was right to give 'em money, and now it's time to move forward. I'm getting a sense, though, you're saying, no, we still, that we still need to look at it a little bit more. Is that...

DK: Well, as far as for the generation now and that, I don't know that'd help it. For generations to come, and at say, fourth grade and eighth grade is the main history, for them to get information that their government was wrong without explaining why they were wrong, then it's like, one professor put it, it isn't education when it's one-sided; it's propaganda. And quite a little of the books that I've read is propaganda, on both sides. The truth needs to be told, and the hardships, yeah, everybody, I mean, everybody in America had hardships. And they, they made sure we kept our freedom. I mean, it was, it was a hundred percent, nearly, effort because we love freedom. I mean, it's priceless. It's, you can't buy it, you can't acquire it, inherit it, or any other way. Freedom is, is priceless.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2005 Densho. All Rights Reserved.