<Begin Segment 12>

JN: Today, how do you feel about what's happening... what do you feel about what happened to your family during the war and how do you feel about the memorial?

LK: Well, it was a terrific wrong that happened to all the Japanese Americans. And I think the memorial's important because, well, for one thing, it is historical that Bainbridge Islanders were the very first to be removed. And also it's telling because I realize now that the people, the community of Bainbridge Island was unique in that they welcomed us back. They weren't perfect, there was, I think, one or two voices who spoke out against that. But, on the whole, people felt welcomed home. And, and I think that, too, is telling and should be, should be told and should be memorialized. That plus the... well, just so that it wouldn't happen again. I think even... it's taken me a long time to not deny my Japanese-ness. Somehow even if intellectually I know that I'm not the country of Japan, but it's hard to remove that when people around you are not letting you forget that. It's just recently that I don't think about that. Well... it's been a while, but it, it did color the way I looked at things or reacted to things. Like almost denying my Japanese-ness. And, so...

JN: What would you like to say to visitors to the memorial?

LK: To say what?

JN: To, what would you like to say to the visitors?

LK: Oh, to the visitors? Hmm, I don't know. It depends on... I don't know what I'd say to them. It depends on what they ask me, I suppose. Well, I would like them to know that... well, that these were American, Americans, not Japanese from Japan, and they had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor or... and that how easy it is to make that... I don't know why it was so easy for them to make the leap when that wasn't done with Germans or Italians. But, and how, well, how vigilant we should be about not making that kind of mistake again as people or as a government.

JN: This is another question, but I recall... it brings it to my mind. If your mother or your father were still alive and they probably took the brunt of the, of the burdens because so much of it they didn't even share with you as adults, what do you think they would feel?

LK: I think, I think they would feel like... some of the Nisei I've spoken to, they, they would say to me, "Oh, we're so grateful that Frank and you have done this." And I think it's because they, they feel like they wouldn't be able to do it, and that they're glad that someone else has picked up the, the flame to get this going. And I think my parents would feel the same way, that they'd be, they'd be grateful that something is being done so that it will be memorialized and not forgotten. Because it was... as I said, it took me a long time, but I realize now what a hard time it was for, well, for all of the adults. I knew that, but I mean, to really feel that, yeah. It must have been a really trying time.

JN: Do you have anything else you want to share?

LK: Only that, only that it's, that people are more aware of differences and yet we are all so different but that we're really all alike in our same wants and emotions and, and I think people are more aware of that. It's not as easy as before when they pigeon-holed people or were quick to discriminate because of your race, or your, your... or whatever. I think people are more worldly now. But at the same time, there's pockets when it's brought up short, that there are still people who do not get it. And, and that... it goes back to my, the discrimination that I felt as a young person. When, even today when that's brought up, and it, I get my, my defenses go up and I think, oh, even just going into Safeway, I think, "Ooh now, I wonder how that person feels about me." And I would never, I got to a point where I didn't even think about that. I mean, I forgot that I was Japanese. And my friends would tell me they forget that you're, that I'm... well, that I have an ethnicity. But every now and then I'm brought up short and I think, "Oh, we need to be ever vigilant." But at the same time, it is a lot better now, I think. But at the same time, we're human beings, I guess, and fear makes people... I think that's the basis of a lot of discrimination, is fear.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.