Densho Digital Archive - Rudy Tokiwa Interview II (denshovh-trudy-02-0063)

<Begin Segment 63>

TI: When you say they, those guys, they, are we talking about more like Sanseis?

JN: Yes.

TI: The third generation?

RT: Yeah.

TI: So was this almost a Nisei-Sansei sort of difference in how things are done?

RT: I wouldn't say it's a difference of Nisei-Sanseis, but it's a difference between where you got people who are in the upper class who have made a little bit of money. And the way I look at it is they want the glory of it.

[Interruption]

RT: Well, until even lately, though, I've always thought, "Well, I'm not gonna go out and get that big money no more. But I will go out and get them some money."

JN: Oh, I think you're gonna have to do more than that.

RT: But then the last time I sat in the meeting, and when they, practically told me, "We don't even want you around." Why... this is a program that we're trying to tell the story about what happened during World War II and the tale, and how the Japanese Americans came back up like this. But to them now, this is a story about how great they are.

JN: Well, it...

TI: When you say how great, it means the story... I mean, I imagine they still wanna incorporate the veterans' story. Are they just trying to incorporate a broader perspective? When you say "their story," I'm not quite sure...

RT: Yeah, well, it's more about what they have done than what the vets have done.

JN: See, the original (concept) was the idea of talking about the three generations, of how there was an immigration, and what the Nisei went through, and then what progress was made. But now, they've almost completely the removed World War II experience. The Sansei don't even want the barbed wire, I mean, they don't wanna have that in there. They're ashamed of it, really. They're ashamed of this legacy. And so the focus, and we're talking about sixty-five-year-olds, they're Sanseis, they wanna look at, I'm at this level, and I'm a multi-millionaire. They want that sort of thing. They wanna see that kind of element (dominate the project).