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BT: Well, so then let's go back to when you were about nine years old, right? That's when the war started. What was your recollection then? Were you aware of what was happening in the world at that time?

FS: Yeah. Actually, I was eight. I just turned nine when I went to camp, in camp. My recollection, because I was an only child and the way my parents raised me, we were close to a drugstore. I used to go to the drugstore and hang out and read comic books. So I'm not a reader, because my parents made sure I had a good education early on in Japanese, but they assumed, as many parents do, that the public schools would teach me English. Well, as it turns out, they didn't do a very good job of teaching me English, so I read very little. And as I grew up, and even after I got out of camp, which we'll get into, I used... but I want to refer to the comic book because I used comic books as the basis of my book report. They were classic comics, and they had these stories that I remembered. And so I could kind of fake it, I didn't have to write a whole lot. I was able to draw my way through.

BT: Did you have a favorite comic book, a favorite, yeah, comic that you liked?

FS: Yeah. One that I never forgot was the one that, Les Miserables, Jean Valjean, and even the musical, everything about that. I first learned that, and I remember from the comic book.

BT: What was it about Les Miserables that attracted you?

FS: Well, the, you know, running through the sewers and all this stuff, I think it's just the fighting. I don't know, somehow, isn't that the right word? Jean Valjean or something like that? Anyway, I just remember vividly that story.

BT: So do you think that early experience laid any foundation or groundwork for you, for your interest, you know, your professional interests later in life? Do you think... what do you think that all might have had, what effect that might have had on your career?

FS: I think... well, I never had any problem making friends. My father always instilled in me a need to study hard and play hard. He grew up that way, he played tennis, he studied, he read. But he didn't realize that I wasn't reading English books. And so I was a poor reader, in fact, the most reading I did is in the last ten years, trying to understand my father's story about the samurai and all that. I think... it has nothing to do with my career. I think what happened even in my career, my father always instilled in me pride. I've never had to apologize for being Japanese, that came with me. And I'm named after Franklin, that's American, so that's probably the most important thing that could happen, is that no matter where I went, I was aware of my identity. I really had friends of all colors.

BT: Well, with a name like Franklin as a first name, and then your middle name being Tadanao...

FS: Tadakuni.

BT: Tadakuni, yeah, you were always reminded of that.

FS: But I think people called me Frank. Later on, there was a little bit of desire to be called Frank because I thought "Franklin" was sissy, and that's the only reason. It didn't sound like a jock, you know, I loved to play sports.

BT: Franklin's a cool name, actually. [Laughs]

FS: Well, it's all okay now, but in my period it wasn't.

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