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DG: Do you have anything else you want to share about the pilgrimage?

MW: Oh, that was wonderful. It truly was wonderful. If anybody has an interest, I would say go if they have the slightest interest. I learned so much, and the camaraderie that... I made friends with people who... it was like going to Brownie Scout camp, it was sort of, you know? Because you just... the associations with people I had, a woman who read some poetry, and I asked, "I'd love to get a copy of that." She sent me some of her poetry. Another woman who had written some stories, wonderful stories, which I hope she publishes, sent me some of those. You shared things that... and I get emotional when I talk about emotional things, so I don't, at memorial services I always want to stand up and say, "I love this person," so I don't want do that. But I thought it was important enough that I shared my impressions of finally crossing the canal and standing in Minidoka and seeing the barrack. And I did; I cried, and it didn't matter. It was that kind of sharing, real sharing. It was quite wonderful.

DG: And I want to hear your journey with your book that you're writing right now. When did you get the idea that you wanted to write this book and that sort of thing?

MW: It started with the scrapbook that Paul Ohtaki, who was the first of the camp correspondents, kept. He has many of the articles that were published in the Review, has the editorials, and he followed, beyond that, he followed the sort of history of my parents and then some of the awards that they were given in later life. And I was going to redo that for the historical society, just kind of get it more accessible, but I think it's a wonderful resource. It's a wonderful resource just if you're interested in it, to flip through and read the letters to the editor and the editorials. It's very, very informative. And to make it accessible for schools. And then someone said, "You know, what we really need and we don't have is the story about Bainbridge because Bainbridge was different, ant the Review was different, and you really ought to write about your parents." So I'm using Paul's scrapbook, that was sort of the basis of it. But it's chronicling how Bainbridge reacted differently than most every other community that I'm aware of, and some of the reasons why. But it's not intended to be a scholarly text. After the actual writing is completed, we hope to approach people in the community to approach people in the community to dig in their closets and their attics and bring out artifacts from that time would help also tell the story. I've seen some scrapbooks that people have lent me where they have the, everybody had to wear a tag, that's how they were identified. Everybody had to have a tag with the family number on it, and that was also put on the suitcase that they had. She has her original tags. That would be great to photograph, and other people have work cards that really were punch cards, but cards that they needed to have to work, to show that they were working at Manzanar, or work release cards, you had to have this form to be able to go harvest beet. But all of those kinds of things would make it much more interesting, and letters home, and try to tell the story so it's accessible for people to read. It's been an interesting progression from thinking I could possibly write a book to just being so fascinated by the story. And I sometimes spend a whole day on something that's very, very interesting. I know it's not going to go in the book, but I get, I mean, it's just a fascinating story, it truly is. There are so many aspects of it, that that's what we're trying to do and we're working with a publishing company on the island who's been very generous in what they've supplied. So yeah, I hope to do this.

DG: Very exciting. [Laughs]

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