<Begin Segment 20>

AI: Well, now as time has passed there have been a number of books and documentaries and some recorded history about camp, but when we were talking earlier you had mentioned Mr. Okamoto's death and how he was killed. I haven't heard much about that at all. Why do you think that is?

KK: Yeah, I couldn't understand it either. I read books, all those books, most of the books about Tule Lake and all that, and they all seemed to omit that and talked about the accident that happened on the farm where the truck overturned or something. But that also happened, but that wasn't the catalyst of the riot to me. I believe Okamoto's incident was what caused the riot really.

AI: And it sounds as though there were at least some witnesses to his death since, as you mentioned, if the guard was standing there while he was bleeding and medical personnel came, at least the medical personnel would have seen him.

KK: Yeah, right. I know.

AI: And yet there aren't too many accounts of this.

KK: Yeah. The funny part of it is that I read all these books and they hadn't mentioned -- no books mentioned about Okamoto so, all of a sudden I was thinking maybe I was dreaming all this thing happening. So I called my sister in Los Angeles and asked them about that, and she says, "Yeah, that happened." In fact, she knew the guy. My sister knew the guy that was killed and that caused the riot and all that. She told me now so all of a sudden I felt it was true.

AI: And your family got this information directly from Mr. Okamoto's family.

KK: Yes, yeah. But I just wanted to put the record straight.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.