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MA: And you'd mentioned earlier that you had some experiences with prejudice and discrimination. Did you really feel a change after Pearl Harbor in terms of sort of discriminatory attitudes towards you because you were Japanese?

BK: Yeah. And things would happen, like I said, you'd walk in the store and you knew immediately whether you were welcome or not. And then after my kids started school, there would be incidents. And I remember a particular one where my daughter was in middle school. And all of her friends were going into Rainbow Girls, which is sponsored by Masonic, Elks. And she was told that she couldn't join because she's Japanese and she came home crying, yeah. And things would happen to my boys, too. And so that's when I thought, "Well, we needed to talk about this." And so I heard about a Green Circle program which is a good human relations program started by the Quakers, the Friends. And by the way, they were very good to the Japanese during World War II, that religion was. And they use that Green Circle program in their church and so I was in AAUW at that time and so I saw that presentation. I thought that's a good way to talk about prejudice to little kids. And so I started that program and would approach principals in the elementary schools and set up a time and I must have visited almost every elementary school in the valley. And then I started being asked by clubs and even at the college classes. And so... 'cause it wasn't just the kids who needed that. You started out with a green, it's a felt presentation. You start out with a small green circle. You put you in the circle and you talk about how lonely it is, and so you include your family, and gradually you include other friends. And then you talk about different flowers and how dull it would be if all the flowers were the same color and the same kind, and you relate that to people with different color. And then I would bring in different religions and so pretty soon the circle is big, and you're including everybody. So it was a good program. So I hope it helped.

MA: So going back a little bit to the time just following Pearl Harbor and around the early '40s, do you remember any other memorable incidents that come to your mind, like after Pearl Harbor that happened to the community or to your family that you felt maybe targeted because you were Japanese or, maybe the community was treated differently in general?

BK: I'm trying to think. My husband and I were married in 1953. And even after that, like, he's a veterinarian. And even in the '60s and '70s, I know there were a couple of ranchers who would not call him because he was Japanese. Isn't that something? And to this day, there is still one rancher, to this day, who won't call him because he's Japanese. So it still happens.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright ©2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.