<Begin Segment 17>

NW: Well, yeah, you've been so generous in sharing your story. I have just a couple kind of reflection questions for you. So one thing I was wondering, when you look back at your experiences and your life history, and I think particularly your time in Tule Lake and that experience of being uprooted from your home, do you think that had an experience -- or excuse me -- do you think that had any long-term impacts on your life beyond the war?

MW: How could it not?

NW: Do you feel it kind of show up in other places in your life or even today?

MW: Whenever there's an opportunity. In some schools, they hardly ever mention it, they don't hardly talk about it. So any time I have, I'm on the airplane. And before I know it, I'm making sure that they hear something about, at least, people tend to just kind of gloss over. Some people want to ask questions, but maybe you can mention something which will spark a thought in them. Sometimes it's spur of the moment. Most of the time on the airplane or I meet somebody, I have a little bit of conversation. Because you can't just say, "Oh, this was wrong," you just have to... and to some people it's complete, something that they've never really heard of or thought about. And you can't push too much. But maybe, little by little, wherever you have a chance. I'm not a crusader in terms of, you've got to listen to me, this is what's happening. But when I have an opportunity, I think that's all we can do.

NW: Put a human face on the story.

MW: There are certain things that I feel very strongly about, is the Native Americans. Excuse me. It breaks my heart. I mean, we can talk about all the wrongs to us, but when you think about them... my girls laugh because when I was on the plane one time, we were flying over the Dakotas. And I just felt very emotional about those people down there trying to fight for their rights. And here we are, in this luxurious plane flying over them. I thought to myself, I've got to say something. I want them to think about this. And so I thought, I only have a few seconds, we're about to land. [Laughs] So I stood up and I said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I have something to say. I just want you to realize that we're flying over the Dakotas right now, or we did fly over, where [there are] these people who are being so wronged." that's all I said. When I got off the plane, one man hugged me and he said, "Thank you, I'm part..." this and this, you know, some Indian group. And then another one also thanked me. And I thought, oh, they know that somebody thinks about them, and I hope that some people on the plane thought about something. We just have to keep reminding us.

NW: It's important to use your voice.

MW: Once in while I get brave. [Laughs] You don't have to tell this, but I just want to tell you because they are on my mind. As much as we think we suffered, it's nothing compared to them.

NW: There's a lot of painful history. Kind of in that vein, I have just one last question for you. And I was wondering, so for the people who watch this interview, whether it's students or young people, whoever it is, what is the one thing that you would like them to take away from this?

MW: Well, I don't know how I would say it in words, but I think I told you that...

NW: Take your time. Maybe another way to think about it could by why do you think that it's important for people to know this history and know the story?

MW: It's so important that we don't just concentrate on ourselves. The world is a big place, and ours is not the only history. History is important to everybody. But in the bigger picture, there's so much more than just ourselves.

NW: I agree. Well, those were all the questions that I had. So was there anything else that you wanted to say or anything I forgot to mention?

MW: Well, I admire how the group like Densho and other people of this generation are supporting the stories, their history and sharing. And at the same time, as I see in the Pacific Citizen, the attempts at being involved in social justice, not just because we're not alone. And it's a long struggle, but we need to be more broad and open and grow. It's not easy. But I'm just a little person, but it takes a lot of little persons, I guess.

NW: Little people change the world.

MW: You just do the best you can in whatever you can do.

NW: Well, yeah, May, thank you so much for sharing your story.

MW: Oh, I think this was a very disconnected kind of thing, and I think you could do a lot of scratching out. [Laughs]

NW: No, I think this was great. You gave us so many stories, and it's a great perspective on the history. So thank you so much.

MW: Thank you for all your work, you two, and all your organization. I'm sure you've collected, many, many. And I see some of those people who presented and I think, I haven't been doing anything. But we can only do what individually we can do, and you're doing a good job, both of you.

NW: Well, we're following your example.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.