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AI: Did you and your husband ever talk to your kids about what had happened during the war? Anything about the camps or anything that had, about what had happened to your dad?

RT: Yeah, probably. We must have. My husband more than I, because he was older when evacuation happened, and I believe that the older Nisei -- well, he's a Nisei. He was twenty, twenty-one, and they, I think, I keep telling my husband that he has maintained a certain bitterness, and he claims it's not bitterness, it's just anger. And I think that's true. Whereas I was fourteen, fifteen, and just that age gap, I think, made the experience far different for him than for me. But we did... our kids knew about it. Now, one thing I must say, you know, I taught in Minneapolis -- eventually I got back to teaching -- and I was team teaching with a history teacher in high school. We were teaching an ecology course. It was new then. Anyway, one day I was in my lab and he came roaring in -- and he's a history teacher, not only history but American history -- he says, "I've got to talk to you." He says, "I heard that Americans of Japanese ancestry were put into camps during World War II." Now, this is in the '60s. And the poor guy graduated an American History major and he didn't know about it. He had never heard of it. He couldn't believe it. I said, "Yeah, that's right, Warren. This is exactly what happened to us. Yeah, we were stuck in camp." And he just sat down and he says, "I can't believe it. How come I don't know about it?" And so here he is, a young man, graduated from college, teaching American history, and he didn't know a thing about it. Yeah. But yeah, we talked to our kids about it, but not a great deal.

<End Segment 39> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.