<Begin Segment 20>

BN: When did you move to Huntington Beach?

SM: Well, we were in Santa Monica, and the company just won a new contract for NASA building one of the, the second stage of the rocket that went to the moon, Saturn, it's called the S-4-B stage. And the diameter of the Saturn is so big that there was no way to get the part of that rocket to the ocean at Santa Monica to appear to bring it around to Florida for launch. So we had to find a new place. And they looked at, the company looked at two places, one is near Santa Barbara, Oxnard area, and the other was in Huntington Beach. Because the government owned land and they had a port, so the company decided Huntington Beach, and that's where I moved, because the company decided to move us all, everybody that was working on the space program would go to Huntington Beach, that's all that happened.

BN: This must have been in the '60s.

SM: This is in 1972.

BN: Oh, '72.

SM: '72, '72.

BN: And was the stuff you were working on, could you talk about it or was it kind of top secret stuff?

SM: Some were classified, some were not. It was mostly having to do with, by that time it was mostly rockets, helping develop rockets and make sure they work.

BN: Was your being of Japanese descent ever an issue in that occupation?

SM: Not when I was there. In fact, I owe my thanks, a lot of us owe our thanks to the Blacks, way back before the war, and equal opportunity became the rule of the land. So it was during the Roosevelt administration, you know, of all people, the Roosevelt passed the requirement of equal opportunity. The same Roosevelt who signed Executive Order 9066, go figure that one out. Regardless, it was the Black initiative that resulted in the defense industries opening up the doors to Japanese and anyone, frankly. And really, we owe our thanks to those Blacks in those days who helped promote equal opportunity, that was very important.

BN: And then given... we'll get to your speaking in a little bit but given how active you became later in life, I'm curious, because one of the standard narratives of the Sansei is that the parents didn't tell them about camp. Did you tell your kids about your camp experience as they were growing up?

SM: Oh, yes. After I began my speaking career, I really wanted to make sure my kids and my grandkids knew. So they heard me talk, I took them to pilgrimages, I took them to...

BN: You're talking about before? Like in the '70s and '80s?

SM: No. In those days, I really didn't talk much about camp, I wasn't interested.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.