<Begin Segment 8>

BF: To, to people who aren't Nikkei, it may seem somewhat surprising that a lot of Nikkei didn't know the full story, hadn't, over that many years, talked about it, realized that these things were happening, done studies, whatever. Does that surprise you at all? And if not, why, or...

WM: No, it doesn't surprise me that they didn't know, because I thought I was fairly knowledgeable of what happened in 1942 and thereafter. But when I heard the testimonies, so many new things came up, that I was, sometimes I was shocked. And when the testimony came forth before the commission itself, there was a combination of a number of emotions. Number one is shock, surprise, rage, anger. Rage and pity as to what happened to some of these people. Rage at what the government did blatantly against my people. And when you get this combination of emotions, I... I've never had it before. You know, I may become angry at somebody who, well, driving along the road -- just to give you an example, I don't do that -- but I can see where you can get angry at somebody who cuts in front of you, or takes your parking space. That's one kind of anger. When you get an anger of sorrow and rage and hate to some extent -- not hating the person, but hating what happened -- it's a terrible, terrible emotion. And I could not... I tried to keep from letting tears come to my eyes. They did, to be honest with you. But I was hoping that they wouldn't go down my cheeks because they were videotaping these sessions. And you know, here's a guy who's supposed to pass upon this issue and the guy's crying. And if he's crying, he's unstable. And anyhow, the way, at least most men are raised that way, men are not supposed to cry. You're supposed to be shikkari shite -- okay, very strong. But to fight back the tears -- I don't know if you've ever had a lump in your throat, periodically sometimes you will -- but it's a brief... you know, you feel a lump and it goes away. I sat through the San Francisco hearings with my throat sore. And it was painful. Because you hear some more and the anger comes up again, and the rage, and the fear -- they all come up at once.

BF: And as a judge and a member of the commission you felt you couldn't show the emotion?

WM: You shouldn't. As a judge, I sat through all kinds of cases. And I never showed my emotions. I never... well, people may laugh at a joke that may occur in the courtroom unexpectedly, but never your emotions, that, "I don't believe you," for example. Listening, you have to listen with a poker face.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.