<Begin Segment 12>

MW: You've been very active in supporting the memorial. Would you talk about why you think it's important and what you think the value of the memorial is?

EH: Well, the Japanese people have always been my friends. And to take American citizens away and put 'em in a concentration camp is what they did, and with loaded guns and all that, and they didn't deserve that. And when they asked me to be on the committee with them, and Jerry was the big push. "Come on, Earl, come on." And I'd always make my comments for them, because... and the park itself, when we were little kids, we went down there every day. Even when I was just a little toddler, my mother would take me down there, and Charlie Ness's mother would bring him down, and Ruthie Haugan's mother would bring Ruthie down and we'd all swim. And the park has always been back in my mind as a wonderful place to grow up. And to put a memorial in there for the Japanese, I think that's fantastic and I'm all for it.

MW: And what do you hope visitors will take away from the park experience, from being there and seeing the memorial? What do you hope they will learn from that? Or not really learn, but...

EH: Well, I've taken my grandkids down there, and I've always... they just adored Jerry. I'd tell 'em that that's where I grew up as a kid, and now you see what the park is going to be like, and with the bridges in there which is really neat, and when they put all their names up on there. And the thing that bothers me is we have some kids that are just destructive, and they'll put their graffiti on there, and I hope it does not happen. 'Cause I'd like to take a golf club and whack 'em one.

MW: There hasn't been any yet.

EH: Not yet, but when they put the names on the big wall...

MW: Yeah, it's a risk.

EH: Yeah, 'cause I'm sure there are still some dissenters that don't care, that don't know what it was like.

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