<Begin Segment 13>

LH: But still, he still never did really explain how he had been treated up in Missoula?

FK: No and I don't have the slightest idea. The only things I know are there was some - the newspaper clippings that were... I was able to get, had some articles about how the Japanese and the Italians up there didn't get along... that they didn't like each other's food. And I'm going, well, (that makes a lot of sense). [Laughs] That for, and I think that most of the Italians were actually, Italian nationals. They weren't like American, Italian Americans, but they were Italian nationals. So, and, and it was hard for people, I guess at that time, to make the distinction between nationals and Americans. And I don't know whether it was rough up there or whatever. I know some of the pictures show like they were in maximum security there for a while as far as barbed wire all over the place. But...

LH: Why was it do you think, that, that your father never did speak of it?

FK: I don't know. I don't know whether it was because none of us were, ever asked him about it, or, or what. Because he died in '67 and I really didn't get interested, back on history, until after I was out of college. And I got out of college about '65 in dental school. So, he died a couple of years after I got out of dental school and a year after I got married. So I don't know. I, I, I think in a lot of ways, that the experience was real painful for some people, real painful. And, and I know when we started, we tried to get our oral history project started, on the Island it was, we had a lot of resistance. It was three of us, Sansei that wanted to do this thing. I was probably the oldest of the three Sanseis. But, they were coming up with things like, "Why would you want to bring up bad memories for the... if you brought this stuff up, then what would the rest of the Caucasian population think of us on Bainbridge Island?" and things like that. They made some statements like, that we were really angry people because we wanted to bring this up. So there was a lot of resistance to bringing up a history project about...

LH: And so how did you decide to proceed?

FK: We... just proceeded. [Laughs] But at the same time, some of the older guys, maybe like my sister's age, who had done a lot in the community and probably had a little more weight than we did, as far as in the community, because of their stature started agreeing with us and through their support back... and they were Sanseis also, that were about five years older than we were. Or in some cases, even more than that, because I was actually ten years older than the younger Sanseis that wanted it (Narr. note: To do the project). And the other two Sanseis that wanted to do the project did not go through internment; but they had a real keen sense, especially one of them. I think Ron Nakata had a real keen sense of what it was like to go to school here. And the things he had to struggle with as far as that identity, and I had the same feelings. So, when we had talked about that, we, it was pretty much, we decided we needed to do it for our kids. That they needed to know who they were and not have to go through the same things we did. Where you, more (or less), where you tended to deny your, your heritage and who you were.

And that was really a problem for me when I think back. I didn't really realize that 'til I was in college, in how much I had tried to be white. And how hurtful that was to me. And I'm, and I didn't want that to happen to my son and I didn't want that to happen to future generations. So that kind of drove us. And, and, and I think the Sanseis, that were about five years older than I, they also felt the same way. So, once we got the project started it was, people realized that they had to do this. So, and it was for our kids, but it was obviously for us as well. I mean, to watch people talk about things and say, "I haven't mentioned this for fifty years. It's the first time I've talked about it." And start talking about it and have tears start streaming, streaming down (from) their eyes (down their cheeks). You just knew, that it was not only for our kids but it was for us too.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.