<Begin Segment 41>

AI: Well, now when, when the redress effort was going on, had you, did you hear much about that or what did you think about that?

RT: Well, you get a little bit, information comes in bits and pieces, and I was a little cynical. I thought, "Oh, this will never happen, $20,000, ha, ha, ha." Well, my mother, oh, she was so sure; "When I get my $20,000..." I mean, she was sure that it was gonna happen. And the rest of us, "Well, if it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't." But she was the one who looked forward to it most, and then she died the year that, that redress was finally passed. And it's just a really sad thing for me that she never, she never got to see that because she would have really enjoyed it, the fact that there was some justice after all. Because here is this woman who was yelling about constitutional rights in 1941, and she waited all these years, but she knew it was coming. But it was maybe the following fall or something, but anyway, she passed away before it could finally be given to her.

AI: What about your own reaction when you actually got yours in the mail?

RT: Yeah. Well, that's, that's... I thought that all the money couldn't repay what so many had suffered. Because I knew that there were so many families there were absolutely, not ruined, but they were shattered and had to start all over again afterwards. And for some of them, I don't know that they always attained what they had had before. For myself personally, I was pleased. Yeah, I was definitely pleased that this had come about. But as I said, I regretted my mother had left. Of course, one of my colleagues told me, she says, "When you got that money," she says, "take that money and run." And that was just about the attitude I had... that I would accept this money, and I would enjoy. Yeah.

AI: Well, around that time of redress, I know that that was a time when the general public became more aware because it was in the news, and also for some of the younger folks, the younger Japanese Americans were becoming more aware. Did you get any questions around that time either from your own family or the younger relatives? I was just wondering what kind of questions people might have asked, either about your past experiences --

RT: What year was that? Do you know exactly what year that the redress came about?

AI: Well, I think it was '88 when the legislation passed, but then, of course, the payments weren't made until -- did it begin in 1990, I think?

RT: '90 or so, wasn't it?

AI: For the oldest.

RT: Well, I wasn't asked a lot of questions because my kids were older, and they knew. They had, they were old enough and they had involved themselves enough so, they knew what was going on and what had happened. As far as the younger relatives, I don't think they ever asked me questions, but they had their own parents. So I wasn't questioned too much. I think when it first started becoming known that this was in the works, because there was a lot of debate, I think I was still working, and I know that my colleagues were quite interested in what was going on, so they, they did ask questions. They couldn't believe that I had been in a camp. This was something new to some of them, yes. So that happened, the beginnings of redress, I think, brought a whole new awareness to a lot of folks, that wasn't there before.

<End Segment 41> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.