<Begin Segment 27>

SY: So then what other organizations are you... do you feel are important for your time?

MK: Well, right now I'm concentrating on Go for Broke. Want to buy a raffle ticket? [Laughs] But I think that is another thing that is important for... if it wasn't for these guys, the veterans, none of us would be able to do what... you know, a lot of the young people don't realize it but they owe it to their dads and grandfathers for having the doors opened to them for whatever they want to do. They can succeed anywhere like I said. Who would have thought that a Nisei would be third in line to be president of the United States right now? So I think it's important. But that's why I have to make sure our kids know this.

SY: I see, and so the Go for Broke foundation really, it started back with the 442 organization?

MK: After the 442 started first and somewhere along the line the Go for Broke organization came up with that monument there behind the museum.

SY: And your husband and you have been active from the time that it transitioned over to Go for Broke.

MK: Right, and at the same time the wall at the JACC building came up too.

SY: So they managed to --

MK: Yeah, there was a little bit conflict there but then still I think both of them are very important.

SY: And so I guess for you, the importance of the Go for Broke educational foundation now is to keep, is education.

MK: Education, yes, teacher training that's a big program that they have going and it takes funding. And they're doing a lot of oral histories, it's pretty late in the game now but I wish we could have started a long time ago but they have seven, eight hundred oral histories of our vets. But when you figure that there was seventeen, eighteen hundred who were in there, it's a small part of it.

SY: And your husband did he have his oral history taken?

MK: Yeah, but very late in the game so I never brought myself to even look at it yet.

SY: Really?

MK: I wish it was done much earlier when they could remember things.

SY: So did he become more and more able to talk about it as he got more involved?

MK: I guess with the guys toward the end I noticed that they were... at G Company we had (reunions) every year for almost close to thirty years now. And I noticed that every time they'd have a panel, the guys (...) started elaborating on each other's stories and they added on. And so the last few years have been really good but now it's kind of late.

SY: They're starting to forget.

MK: Not only forget, they're not here anymore.

SY: They're not here, that's right.

MK: Just heard the sad news that G Company in Hawaii is probably disbanding because they have nobody to take over the leadership. The main guy there just passed away last year so that's really sad.

SY: Yeah, that is sad. I know you know a lot of people who --

MK: We became really close to all those people because we met every year. And now we know all the children too.

SY: So that was something that continued, the G Company stayed close.

MK: Right, we had these reunions in Las Vegas, it's a good place to have it. People came from Hawaii, oh, we used to have three hundred or so but now we're down to about eighty.

SY: But they still go on.

MK: We've still been doing it. I don't know, we plan one again this next year but we'll see how it goes. But it's the children that are doing it. They want to keep it up now.

SY: I see. So can you talk a little bit about when you husband passed away? Was that a... I mean, did that change the way you felt about how you stayed involved with all of these organizations like the --

MK: No, it seems like I got more involved 'cause I guess I don't know, I didn't take over some of the things he was doing but then I just did whatever I can.

SY: So you both felt pretty much the same about the work that you were doing?

MK: Yes, we supported each other as far as seeing where we could help.

SY: That's really amazing.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.