<Begin Segment 25>

MN: Now, Bill, you're very active in the community, especially you're a docent at the Japanese American National Museum. Why is it important for you to be active in these organizations?

BS: Mainly it's to give back to the community. But the museum is a little bit more than that. Not only community service, but to tell our story about World War II, because the general public does not know about it. And I felt that everyone in America should know what happened to us during World War II. Basically we were incarcerated, not because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, that was one of the main reasons, but because all the prejudices, all the laws that were against us prior to World War II, which generated the good timing to incarcerate us because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. And then, it was the lack of our government, they didn't represent us. And then mass hysteria, war hysteria, and then the media got against us. They actually printed false information in the media making the general public scared that the Japanese are spies and saboteurs and things like that. So I wanted to tell our story, so I put my reparation money back into the museum to let America know what happened to us, and it never happens again. But after 9/11, it almost happened again. There was talk to incarcerate the American Arabs, American Muslim, just because they look like the terrorists, they said, "Put them in camp." So America didn't learn its lesson. So all the more, I think museum is important for the whole United States.

MN: Bill, I'm going to change the subject a little bit, and I wanted to ask a little bit about your last name because it's very unusual. What is the kanji for Shishima?

BS: It's the number four, and then for island, shima. So it's Four Island. But in Japanese, the word shi means "death." So people don't like to use that. So when strangers see my name in kanji, they don't want to say Shishima, so they say, for the number four they say yon, Yonshima. And I never knew about that until I questioned my parents. I says, "How come strangers call us Yonshima?" Because of that, they don't want to say shi because it refers to death, and so they say Yonshima instead of Shishima.

MN: I don't know any Shishima in the L.A. area except your brother, I guess I've heard of his name. Is that a common name in Wakayama where you came from?

BS: It's very unusual. In fact, the reason we got the name Shishima, that was my father's mother's maiden name. Because there was no male in my father's mother's family, so he took his mother's name. So there's no Shishima relatives in Japan because he came over here, and now the only ones here are my immediate family, my brothers or my nephews. So I'm glad one of my nieces kept her name Shishima. So she's Shishima, even though she's married, she's still using Shishima name.

MN: I've asked my questions. Is there anything else that you want to share about, your thoughts, any other thoughts?

BS: Not offhand, no.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.