Densho Digital Archive - Ayame Tsutakawa - Mayumi Tsutakawa - Kenzan Tsutakawa-Chinn - Yayoi Tsutakawa-Chinn Interview (denshovh-tayame

<Begin Segment 8>

TL: Well, I think how we or how people choose to remember events, I think that that's a major part of how history gets shaped, because there are so many choices that are made about memory. So that's kind of my closing question here, and that is: what you think you'll take away. What kind of feeling or memory, if you will, or emotion that you will be leaving with from this pilgrimage?

AT: I hope that this sort of thing will never happen again to any race. And my experience, and my family experience, I think, is valuable. I think they'll learn something from, but it's not something you want to go through again. There must be other ways to learn.

YT: I think that it's a bad, it was a horrible thing that happened, but at the same time, I'll take away a better feeling than I've already had in the past. I mean there's probably a lot of things that I haven't heard that weren't too pleasant, but just that all these people are talking about how much fun they had or good things that happened. And I think that it's had a more positive impact on me than, or more positive -- I have more positive feelings about it than I used to.

TL: What do you think you might tell a classmate about this pilgrimage, especially if they were Japanese American, too?

YT: That it was a great experience to go experience the whole thing. And I definitely have been learning more about it.

MT: I hope there are more good books for younger readers. I hope that's coming about, because it's such an important educational area that's not covered enough. I personally will take away the feeling of warmth and connections with other individuals from other places. I hope they do publish a big list of addresses and e-mail addresses, so that we can keep in contact. For example, people in Portland, we hardly ever get a chance to talk with them. And here's a perfect entree to further conversation. There's no reason why we couldn't get to know them better. And I just, I'm real happy that this opportunity came about and it was good timing for us.

KT: What am I going to come away with? I am definitely going to come away with just the sense of what happened. And just a little more, it'll help me to internalize it and think about it because, just because I was there. It will definitely help. And I will think about it. And overall, it will be, I think it's definitely a positive experience for anyone who can understand it. I mean there's definitely kids in here, they're running around, they're having fun, and they don't know quite, they know, but I think people who are old enough to understand it really do come away with a sense of... I don't know, the place, it seems so calm now. The valley, the lake that just, it seemed pretty calm in what it was now. And that was, that's part of it -- is it's just hard to imagine 18,000 people in that, in that lake bed where the total population is under 500. I'm definitely glad I came. And it's something that I will treasure and remember.

TL: Thank you. Thank you very much.