<Begin Segment 9>

AI: I remember you were saying earlier that your parents didn't think that you and their other children would have to go. Did they say anything to you at this time?

AK: No. It's just that, well, we'll just have to go and see what was in store for us. And that was, and I think I was real fortunate that, and maybe... I don't know. That they didn't, they weren't getting all upset and making all negative remarks. So that it made our moving and going along with this whole thing much easier for us as well as for them. We didn't have that kind of family dissension that some of the families were having, the blaming and the anger that was being placed on each other like, "Because we're Japanese we're being sent, and I'm Japanese because you're Japanese," that kind of thing. But I did hear that amongst some of my friends.

AI: So then you, here you are in Minidoka and you described a little bit about that before, so I won't ask you about that. But I did want to ask you, you had mentioned -- and again in your speech at the Peace Garden dedication -- you mentioned how you did start having some feelings of anger and confusion while you were in camp. Can you tell me about that, and then about your parents' response?

AK: Well, it became more and more inconvenient. And then, I think, as we were in camp, I started to realize, "Hey, wait a minute. This isn't really the normal kind of thing that should be happening to people." And that we were being incarcerated just because of race and that it wasn't fair. I did feel that. And then, so I'd be grumbling around. And mainly because of the personal inconveniences, I think, more than thinking in terms of, more of the... and then my folks said to, and my dad, my mother was saying, "You know, it isn't good to get angry. This is what happens in wartime. And war is the enemy, and so we must work for peace, we must not just sit here and be angry about it." And it was a good... and I think that was one of the best things that happened to me. Because from then on I felt, well, that I don't have to be thwarting my anger at... you try to, "Okay, come on, let's get on with it, let's have fun, let's do this, let's go on to school, let's..."

AI: Was there, can you tell me about your parents' thoughts? Do you think that was related to any religious upbringing of theirs?

AK: I don't think so. I don't know. They didn't overtly show any real strong religious... they were both readers...

AI: I'm sorry, they were both...?

AK: Readers. And, but I didn't see them sitting there and reading the Bible and scriptures. So, we didn't have that kind of influence, although they told us we could go to any church we wanted to, and we did. And then, we lived on Main Street before we moved to Eighteenth as a youngster -- so I was maybe six or seven -- and the Congregational church was across the street and then the Buddhist church was up the street. And I know I did go to Buddhist church to get some free manju. [Laughs]

AI: [Laughs] That sounds like something a kid would do.

AK: With no, any religious...

AI: So that really wasn't a part of, probably not a part of overtly...

AK: No, and our family didn't go to church as a family.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.