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TI: Well, something we, we both agree on is how it's important to learn from history.

DK: Right.

TI: And again, looking forward to future generations, so let's talk about, what can we learn from what happened sixty years ago? And so, because in our country today, there are, there are some similarities. We are fighting a "war on terrorism," we are in Iraq, there are, it's an Arab country, and there is a sizeable Arab American population. And so going forward, what, what can we learn from what happened sixty years ago, going forward, and how the country should respond now? I mean, what, how do you think? Are we doing the right thing now or do you think we are doing, repeating mistakes?

DK: I, I think we're doing the right thing if we tell both sides. The whole truth is, needs to be told. And as far as admitting our wrong to help us, that's the way it's been done; we can't undo that. And we need to go forward; hatred will kill you. We shouldn't have it. I mean, that's the worst thing there is.

TI: So, but, so going forward in terms of security, national security right now, right now I think the government has, has picked up a few people, they've deported Arab Americans, do you have a sense that we are striking a balance? I mean, they haven't taken the step of trying to round up Arab Americans and put them in camps or anything like that, and yet they are monitoring Arab American populations. I mean, do you think that's about the right balance, and could that have been done with, say, the Japanese American population sixty years ago, and do you think we've learned from that, or not?

DK: Well, I think we've learned, and the thing that strikes me -- out here now on the plaque says they're concentration camps. We need to change that. But as far as telling this story, I'm all for it. I'm all for it.

TI: As long as it's, it's both sides.

DK: As long as it's both sides.

TI: So how do you think it'd be good... I mean, so right now, I think one side, especially from the Japanese American perspective, is being told. I mean, there are books, the National Park Service is listening very much to the Japanese American community. What could the National Park Service do to voice this other perspective? I mean, what, how do you see that happening?

DK: Well, you'd have to go through the media, of course, which hasn't really been done very widely. I'm sure you as Japanese Americans all know about it because there are several books by Japanese Americans that tell it. And as far as, as far as spending a lot of money out there to tell the wrong story, I'm not in favor of it. To tell the whole story, I'm in favor of it. And like I say, it isn't for me, it isn't for any of my relations or nothing, it's... any way you can tell the truth, and the best way to the masses is the way to go. And as far as these Muslims, I don't know if we're doing the right thing. I think we should learn from, probably have learned from putting the Japanese American citizens in, behind barbed wire. And by the way, barbed wire at Hunt camp was to keep the cows out; it wasn't to keep the people in. The guard stations were there for a few that maybe would cause some damage. I mean, they had, they had people's names that was, might give 'em trouble, and then as soon as they could, they got 'em, took 'em back to camp at Tule Lake and screened 'em farther. I mean, this was a screening camp out here, as far as all I can read. Some people stayed a year, some people stayed two-and-a-half years, the full length, but if they cooperated and give their side of the story, they were sent back to live as long as they didn't go in around a defense plant.

TI: Well, or on the West Coast. They couldn't go back to the West Coast. And generally there were three ways that people could leave the camps. There was, you're right, they could get, like, a school leave, if they could find a university that would accept them off the West Coast, like on the East Coast. And then there was a work leave process where if they could find a job and a sponsor to have them, and the third one was military service. Those were the, the three. And those were for only the U.S. citizens, you couldn't happen to the, the Japanese aliens. But you're right, and so there was a range of how long people stayed in the camps. The vast majority, though, stayed there for the duration, though. But your sense, though -- I want to get back to the, the barbed wire and the guard towers. I mean, still, what I read -- and I want to get clarification -- the people in the camps, although perhaps it was perhaps easy to get through the barbed wires and past the guard towers, I mean, still, they were not free to come and go. They, they needed a pass or permission to leave. It was, it was not an open camp in that sense. And you're probably right in that if they decided to do a mass exodus, the barbed wires were not going to hold them back, but there was never any of that. Again, these were U.S. citizens feeling that, that they wanted to help the country in any way they can, at least, many of them were that way.

DK: Yeah. And I admire the ones that were in the 442nd and the ones that got cleared and went back and worked in some kind of, any kind of work to further the war. I mean, they, if they were a cook or a dishwasher or whatever, they were helping the war. As long as they weren't helping the enemy.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2005 Densho. All Rights Reserved.