<Begin Segment 24>

MN: Let me ask you a little bit about redress now. When talks of redress started to surface, how did you think about that?

KI: I didn't think too much about it at that time when it first started, but I think the more I heard about it, the more interested I got. And to see that the need for it or the justice for it or even just talking about it. And I really didn't think too much about it until I went to actually listen to one of the things when it was in San Francisco. And I went with a girlfriend of mine who is Chinese who was from Hawaii. And I said, "Annie, I'm going to go, would you like to come with me?" And she went with me and in the middle of it she walked out. And later I said to her, "Annie, why did you walk out?" She said, "I couldn't stand to listen to the people talking about how they were treated." And it didn't occur to me maybe until that moment how other people, if they heard other people talking about what actually happened to them, the hurt and the pain and the humiliation, that I didn't realize that other people were really doing that... were feeling these things. So I think that was good in the sense that people were beginning to really talk and it made me start thinking more too about what really happened to me, you know. And then of course as it came on later and later that the sessions were going on and on, and in the meantime my father died so he didn't get in on any of this. And my mother barely made it. And so later on the bitterness, the bittersweet is that the people who really deserved it, some of them didn't get it, the ones that really suffered.

MN: Now I know there was a little controversy with some people about accepting this money from the government?

KI: Right.

MN: How did you feel about that and what did you do with your money?

KI: I bought a car. [Laughs] I needed a car. The timing was just right when I needed a car so I didn't think anything about it. I didn't think anything about not accepting it. I says, I deserve it and I'll take it and I did. But at the same time I did feel bad that my father was not able to do it. My mother got it so late that she couldn't enjoy it. I forgot what she did with hers, I think she gave some of it to the grandkids or some of us or something like that. But I don't think she was able to do something that she really wanted to do and I don't know what that would have been but I think it was just too late in the game for her.

MN: Okay, I have asked all my questions that I want to ask of you. Is there anything that you want to add?

KI: Well, I think a lot of people my age sort of are apologetic because we're of an age when we were in school and we enjoyed ourselves. And I think there's a mixture of feeling guilty and wanting to apologize. Well, I don't think that's the right word but maybe a little... I guess maybe guilty would be the best word in a real broad sense that we see it as, at least a lot of us, I won't say all of us of course, that we see it as a phase where, yeah, we had fun. We had school, everything was provided for us, we made friends, we had a community of our own, you know, where we had library, movies and we were able to do all those things at our age. I mean, we couldn't... some of us could even get jobs and that's where I got my first job, my first paying job. So I have fairly good memories of camp and yet I could see the bad side, you know, I could see my mother having to cut diapers and washing them in laundry room, the dust storms that we had, the mud and the rain and the snow, things that we weren't used to living in and things like that. So I could see both... when you really sit down to think about those years just before, during camp and after, there's good... for me there's good and bad. And I am writing about 'em, different things in the different writing classes I'm going to and we share our stories. But my kids don't ask me too many questions but they all keep telling me, "Write your stories," but they don't ask, we don't talk about it. But they say, "You got to write so we can read about it later," or whatever. So I would say it's an important phase in my life. I can't say I don't regret it. The other side and the other part of course is that I didn't get to ask my parents a lot of questions I have now, that I've had the last couple of years after they've gone, after they're gone. So I think it's up to us to tell other people to write their stories or ask questions of their parents, because everybody's got a story. And I know people will say, "Oh, my story is not exciting," or, "it's not new," but when you really dig in and get to some of emotional parts and the nitty gritty, yeah, there's a story. And we're all human beings and we all need to feel loved and belonging, so friends and family are very important. And a lot of us had made lifelong friends in the camp and who knows, if we hadn't had the camp experience, I might not have made all these friends. All I can say is it was a very important part of my life. Thank you.

MN: Well, thank you very much.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.