Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Fred Korematsu - Kathryn Korematsu Interview
Narrators: Fred Korematsu, Kathryn Korematsu
Interviewers: Lorraine Bannai (primary); Tetsuden Kashima (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: May 14, 1996
Densho ID: denshovh-kfred_g-01-0008

<Begin Segment 8>

LB: You have two children who are adults now. Did you tell them about your case?

FK: No. [Laughs] I was gonna, in the back of my mind, that I was gonna do that. And you know, when they're growing up, when they're teenagers, and Karen was involved in Girl Scouts, involved in being a cheerleader at the high school, and they come in and go out right away, they come in and change clothes and off they go and so forth. And then on top of that, I was working on two jobs, so the majority of the time... because I bought a house that I shouldn't have, I shouldn't have bought, because it was too, it was over my head, but I did get it. And in order to maintain it, I had to have two jobs. So I was busy myself. So before you know it, the time just flew, and until I, actually, I started to reopen my case again, and that's when everything got out in the open.

LB: How did your children find out about your case?

FK: Well, I think Kathryn can tell you better than that, than me, because I wasn't there at the time that Karen, my daughter, found out. And she went right to Kathryn and told her about it, that she heard about it in school. And one of the girls, the Japanese girl there, used my case on a... I don't know if it was a, what kind of report was that? I don't know if it was American history or what it was, reported that, and she made that as a report, Korematsu vs. United States, and that perked up my daughter's ears. [Laughs] So she came home and talked to Kathryn about it, so that's how... because she, my daughter, took the time to find out. Otherwise, she hasn't got the time for anything else, she had some of personal things to do, and we haven't got, I mean, we can't even catch up to 'em, catch up to her.

LB: How did Ken find out?

FK: Find out through my daughter and the rest of 'em together.

LB: Did you sit, ever sit down with Ken and Karen and talk to them about your case?

FK: No, they, they got it from Kathryn, they talked to Kathryn. Kathryn probably told them.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1996 Densho. All Rights Reserved.