<Begin Segment 26>

Male voice: I have a question I'd like to talk about, or ask about the war again. Switching gears, can you tell us what the greatest damage was that the internment did to the country?

FK: To the country? Gosh.

Male voice: You know, for the memorial. What's the greatest damage that was done there?

FK: I think the greatest damage the forced removal or being placed in concentration camp did for our country here is that it, it really gets away from what our country stands for. Our country is based on, on the Bill of Rights, people being equal. What makes this country so great and so desirable, desirable for most people isn't how strong it is, how powerful it is, but the opportunity it gives people to, to see each other as being all valued and being equal. And, and I think having something like that happen to us, and also having something like that happen to people of Middle Eastern descent, tells the world that this might not be an ideal place as we thought it was. That it's, that the ideals that we're, this country's based on and was developed by, as far as the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and so forth, may be just a piece of paper. And that it's not something that this country stands for. And, and I think those are the things that make this country so special, the United States so special, and that's the real power of, of here, of living here. And, and anything that goes against that... you know, we have our critics tell us that it was a military necessity, there were MAGIC messages that say they were probably gonna recruit spies. And they lose sight of the whole fact that most of those messages were from the Japanese government, not from the Japanese Americans, and they also lose sight of the fact that there could have been a thousand people that were spies for Japan that were Japanese Americans, and that's not a reason for imprisoning a hundred, hundred and twenty thousand people. I mean, if we went by that philosophy, it would mean that every time a person of a certain ethnic group killed somebody, we ought to arrest everybody of that ethnic group, because that person's a killer, so everybody else must be. And that doesn't make sense.

Male voice: So you're hoping the memorial will do what?

FK: So I'm hoping that, that people can see that they have a choice. They have a choice to respond at times of fear or times of, of feeling less than you are to respond in a way other than putting that on other people. And, and although acknowledging that fear or acknowledging the, the wish to protect yourself, that you don't lose sight of the fact that the most important thing is how we relate to each other and how we care for each other. And that all people, no matter what ethnic background, what country they belong to, whatever, should be valued. American life should not be more valuable than a Muslim life.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.