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AI: Well, I do have another question, and that is about redress. Because, I know again, thinking you all have children, and you all have grandchildren, grandchildren growing up now, I'm sure you all have some concerns about what kind of life they can have, the opportunities they have. And one thing that happened quite a bit after the war, but that might have an effect for them and for you is the redress. And I was just wondering what kind of reaction you had when you got your redress, what you thought about, what went through your mind.

JM: Well, money's good, all right, but I don't think money is everything. I think that apology, I think means a lot, too, but I think it should be more than that, just money and an apology on a form, piece of paper. But, at same time, I (...) have no bitterness. I know it's bad and all that, I often think to myself, "This thing is just a bad dream." What I had to go through. And I think about the times that I grew up, went to school, and had to go in the service, and the times I was in combat, and seeing all kinds of trauma and fear, and all the emotions that a guy could have. My buddy next to me was digging a foxhole, he got cut in two with a machine gun, and the same burst almost got me. I got hit, but I was too scared to jump out of the hole, and by that time, the scars had healed and no blood was coming, so I just left it go at that. Now, I guess I could have gone to the medics and got a Purple Heart or something, but I was too scared. [Laughs] And if anyone says they're not scared, why, that might not be the truth. Because those days were real traumatic. To see your friends and the people you trained with, you know, or you come off the line and they're laying there, bloated and, it's really a bad sight, or something to remember. That's why I say it seemed like a bad dream or nightmare, that we had to go through. Couldn't go live a life like a normal person. And had a fairly decent, normal life. But that's about, sums up of what I feel, right now. And I just, I don't hold no animosity to anybody. I'm everybody's friend. [Laughs]

TI: I agree with Joe, and a lot of what he says. I think it was a time of anger, pain, stress and sorrow, and during that period, for all of us that were in this situation. And, I was bitter and angry at the time, but now when I look back, I don't feel any anger or bitterness, I take it as something that happened. It didn't have to happen but it happened. And we might as well realize that. But, as far as the previously mentioned financial, I'll say it was tremendous. The $20,000 in redress that we got would not near, come nearly close to what the actual loss was. But, nevertheless, I think that was a good token to give to the people, because it came at a time in our life when most of us were well into our seventies, some in eighties, and a lot of us did not live enough to realize. And it was a sum that was enough to help us in our later years. Some call it golden years, I don't know about that. But, anyway, and a letter of apology from the president, I think that was a nice gesture. And, I think now we have to let it rest. And hopefully the public, people of the United States will learn more about this, happening during the war years. I think still, there's a lot more that needs to be done, in telling our story, and I believe this is part of the program here.

JM: Yes, in regards to that, recently my little granddaughter, she's in the second grade, and she read this story about, that was written by Ken Mochizuki, about his life, it was a story but it was based on real life. But she asked me, she says, "Grandpa, did you go through all that stuff, everything that he wrote about?" She asked like she thought it was, didn't happen. But yes, I said, "I had to go to camp. I had barbed wires around me, and I had to stay there, I couldn't do anything I wanted to do." So she's curious, the younger people are curious, the, I think my kids, they didn't learn anything about this in school, or the only thing they knew about was when I talked about a little bit but I didn't say too much about it. And, they're now pretty curious about, really, really what happened. But, my kids, well, they're pushing fifty now. But they said they never read anything about it in school or anything. And I've talked to a lot of GIs from the different parts of the country. And, during the conversation, why, I told 'em, "Yeah, I was in camp." And oh, they thought I was in a military camp. But, no, they didn't hear nothing, anything about it. And so, it shows that there's a lot of ignorant people, not anything against them, but, they just didn't learn, they didn't know these things. And I think if everything is exposed and told the real story, I think probably that would wake a lot of people up.

AI: Well, I really appreciate the three of you taking your time to tell these stories, and to let people know what happened in the past. Is there anything you'd like to add before we end here today?

JM: Well, I just appreciate you inviting us to come and tell our story.

TI: I'm sure that there's many, many more stories, somewhat like ours. But, they're all individually different. And the more exposure we get, the better off everybody's gonna be.

JM: Well yeah, I'm like Tosh here, I'm a little bit camera-shy, even though my son is a cameraman. [Laughs] I don't really feel comfortable until I talk a little bit longer. And if I was more articulate, why, I would have a lot more to say, but if you're in front of the camera, it's a little bit squeamish for me.

TH: Yeah, there you go. You just say, end it now. Thank you very much. I wasn't much help, but I sure like to thank the cameramen for their time, too. And, that's, I better end it like that, or I'll, might flub it again, so, thank you.

AI: Well, thank you all. Today is May 21, 1998. And, we've been speaking with Mr. Joe Matsuzawa, Mr. Tokio Hirotaka, Mr. Tosh Ito, and I'm the interviewer, Alice Ito. Thank you.

<End Segment 47> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.