Densho Digital Repository - Douglas L. Aihara Interview (Densho ID: ddr-densho-522-12)

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BN: And then the other thing I want to ask you before we get to UCLA and the Gidra period was, you know, you're growing up in the '60s. As you're growing up, there's the assassinations, uprisings, Vietnam. Looking back, how aware were you of the things that were going on, and how did you see the world at that point?

DA: Yeah, I think I was like most typical kids. I think I was... of course you knew what was happening, I think everybody knew where they were, my age when John F. Kennedy was killed. That was in junior high, I was in junior high. But you read about it, but just looking back on my life up until that point, I'm trying to do the good and the narrow, and my mom should keep me on the track: Boy Scout, Eagle Scout, getting good grades, trying to go to college, all of that. I was indoctrinated in a certain way. So in terms of my global outlook, I had really none at the time in some ways. But there was this, certainly, I could see this growing apprehension among the young people, especially this whole war thing, right? And so, but again, it was just peripheral. Your life is high school, you got to get good grades, every day is kind of the same kind of thing, and you just didn't want to get into trouble. And there weren't a lot of issues that I knew of at our high school in terms of drugs, it was mostly alcohol. Kids were trying to sneak drinks and whatnot into school, but I didn't think there was any... anyways, I wasn't aware of any kind of drugs going on, but I'm sure there was.

BN: Were there any African American students?

DA: No, not in Montebello. Not that I can recall. Maybe there might have been one or two.

BN: Did your parents ever talk about camp and the war and any of that stuff as you were growing up?

DA: Very minimal. And I know we would ask, and I know I asked my dad about what happened during the war. But like I said, he wouldn't talk a whole lot about it. He didn't bring back very many friends from those days, and he didn't really talk about it much. My mom, too.

BN: And then he didn't go to camp.

DA: Yeah, plus, he didn't go. And my mom, from her, all I got was mostly good stories. And I could see why, given her situation versus what my dad's side had to go through. So a lot different.