Densho Digital Archive - Ehren Watada Interview (denshovh-wehren-01-0009)

<Begin Segment 9>

TI: I'm going to jump forward now to September 11, 2001.

EW: Okay, I'm still in college.

TI: You're still in college, there's the attack, New York City, World Trade Center. Where were you when you heard about this?

EW: I was just waking up in Hawaii, about to go to work, when I heard about it and saw it on TV.

TI: And so what, what was your reaction? What did you do when you first saw that?

EW: It was just surreal. You know, to just see a plane on fire in the middle of a building, and then to see a second one come in, it's just, it's something, you have to double-check the TV and see that you're not watching some kind of movie or something. But I think after that, like many, many Americans, you really just, the whole world changes for you just to think that, that this kind of catastrophic event, a deliberate attack could happen to us, to Americans. Just changes you forever.

TI: So when you say "changes you forever," I mean, how, how did it change you? I mean, what, what would be an example of a change happening to you?

EW: Well, I'll give you an example of comparing what we have in America to what we have in Iraq is that people are so scared in Iraq to go outside of their house every day. Every day it's like, it's like playing roulette, Russian roulette, you know, you could be killed. And in America, people go out to the store, the grocery store, go shopping, Christmas shopping, and they have no other worries about their safety, except basic things like maybe getting into a car accident or something like that, and they just go about their own business totally oblivious to their safety or the events surrounding them. Whereas in other countries, people have to be aware all the time. And that's the thing. After the terrorist attacks, we just realized that we can't go on living oblivious and carefree, that there are threats in the world, no matter how they arise. That there, the world is not just some joyous, carefree place in which, in which the tragic events of the world, the devastation of the world does not affect us, we live in some kind of American bubble.

TI: So it sounds like there's, there's a couple things. So, one, there was this sense of appreciation for what people have in America, but also this, this recognition that it, it just doesn't happen; there needs to be certain things that need to take place to either retain those things or protect those things. Is that... I'm just trying to paraphrase and make sure I understand.

EW: Sure, yeah, that's a good way of putting it. Yeah, and I think I've come to the realization now -- and maybe I'm jumping ahead -- but why is it that we as Americans are privileged to, to live the way we do, without having to live in fear every day, when all around the world, there are people who live in fear every day. And I think, certainly, I love my country, but I think a lot of the things that the, that our governments have done in the past, has added to that sad fact that people in other parts of the world cannot live without fear.