<Begin Segment 12>

SF: Were there any people who just liked to tweak the system, so to speak or, sort of...?

FM: Were there any?

SF: Yeah.

FM: Yeah, I think there were, but there were not, they were not, I don't remember. Min Yasui, for example, was clearly that kind of a guy. And, but Gordon Hirabayashi was not to my knowledge. He was around here. I don't think he ever tried to. Of course, part of the problem was that we're, we were too young to venture out very much into the economic world or into the residential world, purchasing world or whatever. We were a little too young to test that kind of problem. Gordon got into various activities, and I did too, because we were at the University. Now the University, after all, is a very special kind of climate. It's an area where a lot of things are permitted, where, which are not permitted in the larger world. And therefore, I ran around with the Caucasian kids and went to their socials and whatnot, without any trouble. But as to whether this would have been true in the larger community, it's difficult to say. My reason for mentioning Gordon, he did for example, marry a Caucasian woman, as you know. And, on the other hand, this girl he married, his father was a very open-minded person, who, Schmoe -- I've forgotten his first name. Anyway, he was, he was one of the leaders who tried to help the Japanese at the time of the evacuation, that type of person. Well, nevertheless, there were certain places in the, a community like Seattle where you could get involved in, across racial line activities and encounter no difficulties, such as the University, which is a relatively, relatively benign climate. And then you can go somewhere else and you know you'd run into trouble. And, that was the kind of world we had.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.