<Begin Segment 26>

LH: Let me ask you then, is...

MN: Am I getting too philosophical for you?

LH: No, no. Let me ask you, then, was your experience with the camps, did that have any influence on your career choice?

MN: Probably. When I think back and try to make a line, it probably did in several ways 'cause as you start reading the history that I was involved in, actually in body, when my recollection of camp is singing the song in front of an audience, but that wasn't camp. Camp was a heck of a lot more man that. A lot of people suffered and the losses and the sorrow and it was just horrendous. And as I read these stories and I figure I was part of this history, and then you start identifying with some of the stories and as that comes, you need to deal with that somehow. And I was lucky because by the time I started becoming conscious of this and dealing with it, it became okay to do so almost at the same time. I guess I just lived in the nice timing of it all. It's really true. When I first gave assignment at the university college students and I told him to go and find somebody who was in camp and interview them for feelings that they had at the time, kind of like you, what you're doing with me, when I first gave that assignment to college kids, I got a lot of flack from people. Why are you bringing this up? You're embarrassing the community.

LH: Well, who were the people that were giving you flack?

MN: The parents of some of the college kids that I gave this assignment to. They said, "Let well enough alone. You're raking over dangerous coals. You should not be giving this kind of assignment to my kids. You're poisoning their mind. You're making them anti-white." I mean, that kind of statements came at me quite regularly. I could almost predict that's going to happen next quarter when I give the same assignment. [Laughs]

LH: So what was your response to these parents?

MN: Don't participate. I'm sorry you feel this way. We feel it is part of education is dealing with the truth. No, we're not trying to make your kids anti-white, but I think sometimes it's part of the process to just kind of vent and scapegoat yourself, too. And we try to help kids get beyond that to start looking, but I think that in order for us to deal realistically with trying make a better future, we have to look at our past a little bit more honestly.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.