<Begin Segment 14>

BF: Well, sort of related to that -- and this would be unfortunately my last question for you -- I was reading your conference responses to the questions that they provided, and your last sentence, really, I thought was very eloquent, and I wanted to have you tell me a little bit more about it. You wrote, "The legacy of the evacuation experience remains, but the legacy of redress is not yet clear to me." Could you explain a little bit about what you meant by that?

CT: Well, I think it was kind of interesting, in the discussion group right now -- the small group discussions -- I think that we really talked a great deal about, "What are we going to do after this?" And you know, everybody seemed to be so concerned about that. I mean, are we going to just sit back and rest and think, "Well, gee, we won this great victory and so now we're all finished, let's just retire and forget about the rest of the world, the rest of our concerns," and that really concerns me. And that's why I'm hoping that there's more to this legacy than what we have so far. That's what I meant by what I said.

BF: And you also, you preceded it by saying, "The legacy of the evacuation experience remains." Now, people can take that many different ways. What were you thinking when you wrote that?

CT: Well, I'm thinking about the heartache and the wounds and all that stuff that people have repressed and it's still there. It's still there.

BF: So unlike some people who may think that redress was supposed to be a cure-all for it. Those wounds you don't believe...

CT: No, not at all, not at all, because you see evidence of that every day. Especially since we've had this dialogue going, in which people come out and when they start talking. And they still are very emotional, you know, and once they start talking their voices shake. So, no, there's a lot there. And I wish we could just bring it all out.

BF: One big session again.

CT: Yeah. Uh-huh. So yeah, and I think that the -- what the effect that it has had on our children.

BF: What do you think has been the effect on the Sansei and Yonsei generation?

CT: Well, mostly frustration. They're frustrated that their parents cannot talk about it. And they say, "Why is it that all they talk about is what fun they had, they had dances and things like that." And they're very frustrated, because they really want their parents to tell them how they felt and all that, and it's just not happening in a lot of families.

BF: Yeah, to this day.

CT: Yeah, and that concerns me, but I'm hoping -- before all the Nisei die. Yeah.

BF: Well, like I said, that was my last question. But was there anything else you wanted to say or...

CT: Thank you. No, I'm very happy that you're doing this.

BF: Well, thank you. And thank you for sitting with us and talking. We appreciate it.

CT: Okay.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.