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TI: So today is June 18, 2024. We're at your residence, the Sterling Court in San Mateo.

RK: Right.

TI: Just for the purposes of documenting, so Dana Hoshide is running the camera, my name is Tom Ikeda, I'm the interviewer. We also have a couple other people in the room. We have your son, Derek, who is observing, and then we also have another filmmaker, Jason, who is filming us filming you. So, Ron, we're going to get started. And the first question is just, tell me where and when you were born?

RK: I was born in Amache, Colorado, October 18, 1943.

TI: So here's a question that you're one of the few people I can ask, is when you were growing up and people asked, "Where were you born?" what would you say? Like in elementary school or high school, "Ron, where were you born?" what would you say?

RK: I would basically... well, they've asked me here, so I basically just tell them I was born in camp, in Colorado.

TI: But still, a lot of people don't know what that means, right? "What do you mean camp in Colorado?"

RK: Yeah. But there are a lot of people that understand what "camp" means.

TI: And answer this question, because I remember asking, there was a professor, Roger Daniels, who used to teach at UCLA, and this was years ago, but he had students find out where they were born. And one of the students was reluctant to say that he was born in camp. And so when you were growing up as a student, like in elementary school, what would you say? Now you say, yeah, a camp in Colorado, people know about this, but back then, they didn't know about that. What would you say in terms of where you were born?

RK: I basically just told them that I was born in Colorado.

TI: Yeah, not being specific.

RK: Because a lot of them didn't understand what "camp" was, or what it meant. So I just... Colorado.

TI: I always thought what I would do, do I really want to get into that? Because it feels like it's a long story. You'd have to explain everything, especially people that understand, and then it's like, "What do you mean? So you were in prison or you had to go to camp, or what was that?"

RK: Well, a lot of people here have asked me, "Was it like a prison?" And I just tell them that I was born there, I can't remember what was going on. But yeah, my mom and dad, maybe from my uncles and my aunts, they would say it was like a prison, they were behind barbed wire, they had guards, so to them, it was like a prison.

TI: I'm sure that is an interesting conversation piece. It could be, because people aren't expecting, people are expecting, yeah, San Francisco or something. So that leads to the next question. What was the name given to you at birth?

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