<Begin Segment 4>

TI: Before we do that, I'm just curious. I mean, if it weren't for Mike Nakata, if Mike didn't ask that question, "What are you gonna do about it, Henry?" Do you think that made a difference? Do you think you would have perhaps not gone down this route?

HM: Well...

TI: How influential was Mike at this point?

HM: He was very influential because lot of the things that he initiated in my thought process were way in the back of my thought program, way in the back burner someplace. And I never even felt that we would even try to make an approach to contesting what happened to us during the evacuation process. So, he was a kind of a, one of these guys that keep the fire under your seat and make it so hot that you gonna have to do something one way or the other. And he was the initiator of the thing. He was a very strong philosophical influence on me.

TI: Now do you think Mike did this with everyone he came across, or did he see something special in you that thought something would actually happen? I mean what was the relationship like?

HM: Well, I don't know. He, at that time he was a very strong -- he's one of these guys that like to fight fire with fire. And when I did complain about the lack of inaction, or lack of action on the Nikkei part, he would say, "Well you're just like the rest of 'em. You guys are all talk and no action."

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.