<Begin Segment 37>

BK: Was there anything about the internment experience that affected the way you raised your own children?

MH: I want them to -- although they don't ask me many questions, I know they've read the books that we've had. But I've often wondered, even Bev says, "Mom, one of my friends wants you to come and speak to their school in the Lake Washington District." And I said, "Well, okay, let her, let me know." But she herself hasn't asked too many questions. I don't know whether her and her dad have talked about it, but I'm sure they have. They were very, very close. Rodney is kind of like a boy, you know, it's okay, whatever. But Beverly would be the one that'd be most interested, but she hasn't really talked to me much about it. I'm really kind of surprised, because she knows I go out to schools. But whether she knows what her dad said or not, I don't know. I've never asked her, I should ask her.

BK: And maybe she's not ready.

MH: Yeah. And she's married to a hakujin, you know, so... and they're both so busy. I think that's the trouble with most of the children nowadays, we're all too busy, they're all off on their own, doing their thing.

BK: That's true. At the time that the concept of redress arose, many were not in favor of bringing up the, you know, the old wounds and the painful memories. What were your feelings about it at that time?

MH: I really didn't think too much about it. I thought it would be nice, but you know, it's something we lived through. And I wasn't really -- I got more, I thought more about it after, because of the injustice at the time. Now it's been how many years since they've been doing this redress thing? It's been a number of years, hasn't it?

BK: 1981 is, I think when they kind of started.

MH: Uh-huh, and I think up until that time, most of us didn't -- oh, we said, "Oh yeah, we were evacuated." And that was the end of it. You never told anybody too much. And I think that's the way I was, too, until -- then you start to think -- you know, of course, we had bought quite a few books, so we had read. But then, among ourselves, we never talked about it. I don't even remember my husband talking too much about -- he was in the same camp I was, but in a different block. So I think it's something, maybe it's a good thing it did come up. It made more of us realize that more people should hear about it, then...

BK: Right. So you're saying that your views about internment have changed over the years.

MH: Uh-huh, because I, when I was younger, I just thought it was just part of my life. What's that old saying, shikata ga nai?

BK: Uh-huh, shikata ga nai, right.

MH: Gaman shite ikinasai? So...

<End Segment 37> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.