Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Frank S. Fujii Interview
Narrator: Frank S. Fujii
Interviewers: Larry Hashima (primary), Beth Kawahara (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: September 3 and 5, 1997
Densho ID: denshovh-ffrank-01-0036

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FF: And if the Nikkei scenario could... it does prove a point that hey, there's a lot of us who, there's a younger Nikkei group of kids who graduated from college and did well, became doctors, and what have you, lawyers. And I think that's the beautiful part of it. At least you contributed, but for those professionals or, well, it could be any, it don't have to be a professional, but I really think it's important, that it should be mandatory that parents be sensitive enough to talk of the past, talk of the hardships and talk of what the internment has done, talk of the sadness. Because what it does, and I think you always will say to yourself if you're going up in a nice light if you're a doctor, you're not going to always say, well, that well, my parents, they just suffered a little bit, but, you know, I made it. No, I think they should be more sensitive than that. They should be grateful for where they're at. Because of the parents, who were giving and what have you. And I like to think that a lot of the Nikkeis are so proud of their offsprings who achieved a lot academically, and if not even academically, I don't think that word is... where you gotta have this Phi Beta Kappa key and be a Phi Beta. I think there's more to life than that, too. Obviously I wasn't a Phi Beta Kappa or anything, but I like to think that because of being "the general academia" kind of person, B average kind of person that hey, there's nothing wrong with that. You know, I think it's... I've succeeded and I, I think I got through it all and when I went for my advanced degree to think that -- never thought the day that I would be saying yeah, I want to work for my masters. Never thought I'd have that opportunity, or to even say I would do it. And then to do it and then achieve it, I felt, hey, this is all right. And I let my kids know 'cause they were born then, I mean, they were, when I worked, they were in their, oh let's see, they must have been about eight or nine years old when I got my master's. And I told them I'm so proud and so happy and you know, I wanted them to know that I just celebrated, I had parties and everything, and they said, "Hey, this is fun, Dad." And I wanted them to know that those hardships and struggles that I been through has been worth it all, and that if they did, they should be happy.

<End Segment 36> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.