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LB: You mentioned the November 10th hearing before Judge Patel. Your parents were there. What did they, did you have a conversation with them after the hearing, and what did they say?

DT: I think everybody was just stunned. You know, well, normally judges don't rule from the bench like that. They'll take it under submission and you'll hear it, get a decision in writing some months later. And the cameras are just mobbed, and Patel, Judge Patel just felt moved to... she's got a, she knows what she was going to write, and she wanted to make a statement about the Constitution right then and there. And the whole room was filled with internees, former internees. And so when she ruled, I mean, everybody was like, "Whoa, did that really happen?" And my parents were like, it was kind of like the trials that they never had. That's what Fred's case was. I mean, everybody... if you're wronged, you want your day in court, and that was the equivalent of their day in court. And to be told, yeah, they didn't do anything wrong. After all of these years, it was the government that was wrong, and you were right, and you should not have been victimized like that. I think that was a good, that was... and so they were thrilled, everybody was thrilled. Fred was a hero. It was just the most exhilarating and remarkable, amazing thing I'd ever seen. I haven't seen anything since like that. And so it's breathtaking.

LB: How did you feel as a Sansei in response to Judge Patel's decision?

DT: Well, we felt energized. We felt... and we were taking a risk, too. We had our young career on the line, too, and in front of national publicity, if you lose a case like that, what does that do for you? Nothing good. So I think, you know, we decided to take this action, and the moon and the stars aligned. The evidence was there, we got the right judge, we hit the media at a time when it was open to hearing this kind of thing. And the result could not have been better, in many ways. So I often say to Dale, I wish we could have bottled that up, experience up, and then when you're really depressed and you're down, you can just crack open the bottle and have it. It was one of those kind of events, rare. I just felt lucky. I felt so lucky to be a part of that. People thanked us, why? I'd have paid to be on this legal team. It was incredible. Like I said, to be, to read these cases... another one of these wrongly decided cases, but then to have the opportunity to vindicate your own family is, wow, it's amazing.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.