<Begin Segment 37>

LH: Okay, so do you think that that's happening now in the school districts?

MN: I think we've come a long ways. I think we've come a long ways.

LH: What do you think ought to be taught as far as -- let's say for example, what should teachers be now teaching about the internment experience?

MN: I think, basically, we have to really make darn sure we teach every single child to be proud of who they are. And that means their color, their sexual orientation, their economics, that they're handicapped, whatever; but the essential essence of who they are are on the inside. It's their character, it's their lovingness, it's their sense of beauty. These are things that make you a beautiful person, not any of the outside things. So be true to who you are on the outside and nurture that and be proud of that. We need to teach that to every single kid, every single person, that you are a lovable, cherishable, beautiful human being. I think if we keep constantly -- I think the reason why you're a nice person is because somebody loved you before you deserved to be loved. You know? And I think that's the kind of message we need to understand first, that I am a worthy person. I can contribute and make somebody else happy and make this world a little better place. We need to give that confidence to every single person and then start reaching out and sharing with other folks, connecting up with other folks, understand that they are part of the total family of humans, five and a half billion people on this planet. And how we do that? How we do that is to understand the person on the other side of you has fears and hopes and frustrations and joys just like I do. That I am a viable person, number one. I got to start with me and then find that common ground between you and I, no matter who you are. I don't care if you don't even speak my same language. No matter who you are, what experience you come from, we have common ground also. And if we can establish my goodness and find a common ground between you and I, then we can establish a humanity.

Now, I don't really personally -- I don't know about the Densho Project agree with this or not -- but I'm involved with the workshop on internment of Japanese Americans. Personally I couldn't care less if every kid in the school learned about Japanese American incarceration or not. That's not important to me. What is important is they use any vehicle -- whether it's Trail of Tears or whether it is a holocaust or whether it is Jim Crow laws -- to understand the oppression and the injustice of this. Care about what this does to people, understand that I'm involved in it and trying to make this world a little better place and contribute to make this world a little better place for all of us. If they do that through learning about Japanese Americans, fine. If they learn to do that through the Holocaust, that's okay. But as long as you're doing that, understand that people are people, and you really never met a Japanese Americans before, but you know the Jewish story, you know the story from the gay community, what oppression's all about. Then by the time you come across a Japanese American, you are more humanistically ready to hear the story. That's more important, I think. The facts, figures, and numbers, I couldn't care less. I guess I'm not a person that's involved in facts. That to me is not important. It's where it hangs. To me education is the three way street. It is the intellectual knowledge facts. I mean, that's important. Yes, it is, but it's not that critically important. The second part of education is critically important is how you feel about it, what your gut level tells you. It's what I'm loyal to, what I care about, what I'm proud of. This is the gut part of it. That's another strand of education that's really critical. And the third part is what I do about it. It's the action. It's the involvement. If education does not have those three elements -- I tell teachers this all the time -- if education does not have all three elements, it is not education. It is just accumulation of facts so it has to have all three. I'm not sure you want to hear this, but I'm sorry. I got carried away. This is my area so I get cared away very easily on this area. [Laughs]

<End Segment 37> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.