<Begin Segment 8>

BF: What do you think it accomplished?

CT: Well, I think that -- well, you know, so many people came to the hearings and you know they heard what other people had gone through, and I think they recalled what they had gone through. And I think for the first time they faced up to what had actually had happened to them. Everybody had suppressed all these feelings. Yeah. And, I mean, even though they may have faced up to in their hearts, to this day there are many people that can't talk about it.

BF: Yeah. That's what the hearings -- still amaze me because, yeah, like most others, there's many people in my family that still can't talk about it.

CT: Yeah. And you know that's why we're having intergenerational dialogue and things trying to get people to talk. We're still trying to...

BF: Still plugging away.

CT: Plugging away, trying, but yeah.

BF: What did the, what did the nurse do? How did the nurse help in this process of...

CT: Well, she would, you know, kind of counseled us and tried to comfort us.

BF: As a group. So she would help people to work through their feelings?

CT: Oh yes, and their grief, whatever.

BF: That seems like a very sensitive way to -- I mean, did a lot of the other groups think about those issues? Bring in counselors or have nurses?

CT: I don't know. As far as I know, we're the only ones.

BF: That's the first I've heard. And it just like yeah, that would be really, really nice to have that available.

CT: Well, she happened to be on the JACL board at the time, too, and that made a difference.

BF: So she was also Nikkei and so...

CT: Yeah, she was a Sansei woman, yeah.

BF: Oh, wow.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.