<Begin Segment 10>

HM: You know about our memorial, the project that we're doing. What do you feel about this memorial? What are your thoughts about this?

IW: Oh, I think it's good. But I was disappointed, I went today, this morning, and it's just a tori with what you have. I have, this one is the memorial in Washington, D.C. and theirs was completed.

HM: This is just the first phase.

IW: What?

HM: This is just Phase 1. We're just beginning.

IW: Yes. But it's been quite some time. Last time I was here, you had that at the postal office. So I thought, well, it has been... and it was just a little building-like things. And so I was thinking, well, it really hasn't gone much. [Laughs]

HM: What do you think we should include in this? Since we're just beginning this, what sort of things do you envision having included in this memorial and what types of things would you like to see there?

IW: Well, what we went through, that daily life. Have you been to the one in Independence, California, that museum? Well, they have all sorts of things, like mochitsuki and pictures of camp life and what it was. And so you have variety, just everyday things there. And I think you can do likewise. Many people have. I know Nobi Omoto kept all the clippings and all that. And it's nice to see. And we went to that one in Independence, and it was nice that people donated what they had. And you can sort out, and if it's too much, then everything... if it's the same thing over and over, you don't want too much of that. But we went to that and we had to laugh, because he was an editor at one time, but we couldn't find his name in anything. And here we looked up, and sports said, and my name was there as a shortstop. [Laughs] So we had to laugh. But it's everyday things that maybe everybody would be interested in. What you did and where you... you could get all kinds of information, because it just didn't, the class that, '42, that graduated, to us it was a big thing. And yet, we're not recognized at all. Because "Pomp and Circumstance" goes on and we watch. You'd think that it must have been a hundred years ago. [Laughs] So little things, too, that people remember.

HM: We expect visitors from all over the country and all over the world to come to this memorial eventually. Now, what are some of the things you would like them to take away with them, or what thoughts and things would you like them to learn?

IW: Well, Bainbridge Island is just one face that you could put everything in, because even the amount of people that lived here, it's so small when you consider the large portion. Even, yeah, like mochitsuki is one of the things that people really enjoy, and we didn't have taiko drummers or anything, but just everyday things I think people will grasp and say, "Oh, gee, I never realized that." Just the thought that we had ticks in our, for our bedding. Nobody thinks that. They think we had our beds and everything, and it was comfortable. I'm sure Minidoka was the same way, the sandstorm, muddy, theirs was muddiness because I remember that part. But just something like that is really -- they had those Dutch clobbers as shoes, and those are the things that makes a difference, because that's different from Manzanar. Even though the wind blows and all that, but we didn't have the mud and all, and the shoes that they wore. We had the zoot suiters, but nothing that... so you have a lot of things to work on. I think I might write something to you for future that you might want to have. Because it's been a long time since it happened to us. And we get more forgetful as the years go by.

[Interruption]

HM: Did your family take the Bainbridge Review or receive the Bainbridge Review while you were in camp?

IW: Yeah, we always took the Bainbridge Review. And I wished my sister would send me some news of Bainbridge Island. I hear from other people, and I looked forward to it. In fact, last night, I went to the motel and I read everything about Bainbridge Island. Well, it doesn't feature anything about Japanese or what, but I still think it's dear to my heart. Let's see, what else was I gonna say? It just came to my mind. Yeah. Is there anything else that you --

Off camera: Something about the importance of the Review when you were in camp? Did you read the Bainbridge Review while you were in camp?

IW: Yes, uh-huh.

HM: How important was it to you to receive news from home?

IW: Oh, it was important. I liked to hear what happened and all this.

Off camera: Were you aware of the attempt by Lambert Skyler to prevent the Japanese from returning to Bainbridge?

IW: Yes, uh-huh.

Off camera: Was that discussed among...

IW: I just thought it wouldn't be the people in general. That's just one person. And they always had one in every city that didn't want people to come back. But when I came back, he went overseas then, and I came back to Bainbridge, people welcomed me. It was just like I had never left, you know. It's the same thing. I worked in Fifth Avenue housing project, War Authority housing, and they treated me no differently. Just treated me as just one of them. And I felt that I didn't have that prejudice like he had when he couldn't get a haircut in California, in Los Angeles.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.