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TI: Yeah. So this is just... I'll throw this out there, I'm not sure where I'm going with this one, but in the same way you talk about, so something happened, when I think of the Japanese American community, so World War II, the community was placed in camps on the West Coast, that happened. It's now almost seventy-five years. Now, when you take a look at the impact of the community especially around the areas of the health or vibrancy or innovation of the community or its future, and the impact of the World War II incarceration, do you see anything? I'm kind of fishing here, I'm not sure what I'm asking, I'm just asking this in terms of is there something that I'm not seeing.

SA: Well, I think the Japanese American society in this country, the group, has evolved with a lot of intermarriage. As I look around, like in my family, I have no pure Japanese grandkids at all, they're all mixed. And I've talked to a lot of other friends, same thing. So what we're seeing is a totally integrated society in the making. And so I think when our grandkids grew up, the whole individual nationalities are gone. Except for new immigrants that come in at that time again, so there will be new immigrants that come in.

TI: And how do you feel about that in terms of...

SA: I think it's great, I think it's great. I think if you... I've always felt, I guess, that's one thing my parents really taught me, says, "If you come to America, you have to embrace America, and you have to live in the American system, because otherwise you should go back to Japan or wherever you came from."

TI: That's good, I like that. So we've been talking for about an hour, so I said I was going to have an hour of your time. Anything else you want to say before we finish this? Anything else that comes to mind?

SA: Oh, let me think here now. I think we covered everything, I think it was pretty complete.

TI: Well, maybe in another four or five years I'll come back and check in again to see what happens. Because it is interesting that, yeah, you keep evolving and doing new things, and I find that very fascinating. Well, so thank you, Sam, for taking the time.

SA: Well, it's a pleasure. I always get stimulated by talking to you this way because it makes me think about what's really happening in this world. And I really am very interested in how the U.S. evolves. Because when you integrate what's happened in the last fifty years, we have really gone through a mechanical age, a digital age, and an internet age, so fifty years, three major cycles, three major revolutions recently.

TI: Well, yeah, and the digital age is evolving in terms of the computing power.

SA: That's right, it's still going on, Moore's law is still continuing. And so the digital age is continuing, the internet is continuing, so the question is: what's after the internet? What's the next wave?

TI: Well, I have always been of the belief that we'll have nuclear fusion at some point, maybe not in my lifetime, but having essentially unlimited energy will be another breakthrough. Because, yeah, that's another big game changer. Okay, well good, thank you again.

SA: Okay, thank you.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.