<Begin Segment 17>

BN: And then as you were working on this project, this is about the time redress was also...

LH: Oh, yeah.

BN: So were you involved in that at all? I know you mentioned your dad your uncle, definitely.

LH: Not that much, because my family connections weren't that tight, right? I was in L.A., and I have to say, I was purposely fifteen hundred miles from my mother. And she has a very controlling nature, and (I have a) very uncontrollable nature. So I remember going, but what was, really impacted me probably for all the rest of my work, is I went to the congressional hearings.

BN: In L.A.?

LH: In L.A. And you know, Brian, I didn't even go to all the ones I could have. I couldn't do it, it was just too heartbreaking to hear those stories and know that they, this is the first time they had ever said anything about these things. It just tore me up. I couldn't watch it for that long. So I went for two nights of testimonies, something like that. But, of course, that kept happening, too, in my project. I mean, if I asked people about internment they would break out in tears, they never talked about it. My auntie, I'm (in) the Otani Hotel, this very professional woman that never breaks down, broke down in the middle of the Otani Hotel, I didn't even know what to do. So this is like this really searing experience that the Nisei had, that they just a very difficult time letting go of, really, in a lot of ways.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.