<Begin Segment 34>

LH: Frank, did you ever talk to your son Derek about your own life experience with the camp and resettlement?

FK: I don't think I specifically ever sat down and talked to him about it. I, I think I, he did have to do an interview once with your parents and that, I talked to him some then. But I think probably, the time he probably found out the most about me, is when I went to his class at the UW and gave my slide presentation and talked to them about some of the history and background at that time.

LH: And what sort of slide presentation was this?

FK: It's about the Bainbridge Island experience. It's about... I like to call it American history from a different perspective, but I also give a lot of personal things. I talked to them about, the class, about my first real serious girlfriend who was -- when I was a, I think I must have been a sophomore at the UW -- and how I brought her over to my dad's jewelry store to meet my dad. And my dad, I knew my dad was a little concerned because she wasn't Japanese, and but I could tell he liked her. And then after a while, she said to me one day that she couldn't see me any more because her parents told her she couldn't see me, because I was Japanese and, and...

LH: May I ask what race she was?

FK: Yeah, she was Chinese. And, how painful that was for me, because it was the first girl I was real serious about. And how after she told me that she cried and I wanted to cry too, but I just wouldn't let myself cry. And how I wanted her to... it's like the movies, you wanted her to say, "Well my parents don't count, you're more important to me," and all that kind of stuff... but she just couldn't do that. So, but that was a pretty painful situation and I remember, having that pain for quite a while. And again, it's, it's again because of who you are, and not particularly who you are as a person, but because of the way, that you're Japanese.

LH: Had you ever met her parents?

FK: Yeah, sure. Yeah. I'd been to her house and stuff before that. She was actually a classmate of my cousin in high school, so that's kind of how I met her.

LH: Yeah, so when you were talking with Derek about some of your experiences in, in college or in school, what, what are some other experiences you were able to tell him about?

FK: Well again, I don't think I've ever really sat down personally with him and talked about it. Most of the time when I do sit down and talk about it, it's because there's a problem and I think he senses that and he probably, he doesn't really want to hear it. I remember his most common comment at that time, probably was, "Well that's the way they used to do it in the old days." [Laughs] And he's probably right. These are different times and stuff. So I, I probably never really sat down and talked about my background or history, personally.

LH: I see.

FK: Personally, I probably still haven't done that.

<End Segment 34> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.