<Begin Segment 18>

BY: You've also said that you think all Nisei are "warped."

HY: I do.

BY: Right. And for the same reasons?

HY: Yeah, for the same reasons. Because I think the expectation is that we're going to excel, and we don't all excel. Some of us are crooks, like I say, some of us were pimps, some were gamblers, some were cheats, some were liars, they got twelve marriages and so on. We don't all excel, so whenever one of them falls down, said, "Boy, they reflect upon 'my people.'" So I don't like that.

BY: So why do you think they're "warped"?

HY: Well, they're warped because I think their expectations are sometimes unrealistic. When you got a job to do, you got to be a hundred and ten percent perfect, and I don't believe that. It's nice to be just a hundred percent. [Laughs]

BY: And does the incarceration experiences, that also, is that why you also think people are warped?

HY: Well, no, not all. I don't think that warped is... that even maybe strengthened us a little bit. The fact that we went through this because people didn't like us. And so we have to say, why didn't people like us? What did we do wrong that made people dislike us? And so I'm not saying it's a good thing, but I think that on reflection, as adults and things like that, I don't mean little kids, they can't think about that in that term, maybe. But in my age group, we reflect upon, said hey, we came out of this pretty good, considering what was dumped on us.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.