Densho Digital Archive - Sally Shimako Nishimori Kitano Interview (denshovh-ksally-01-0012)

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FK: In 1988, the government signed a reparations act for us and gave each person that was in a concentration camp $20,000. What are your feelings about that?

SK: Oh, that was wonderful, that was a good... I was very pleased about that. And I just... but at the same time, I said it was too late for my parents. My parents were the ones that suffered through that whole episode, and I know my mother and my dad, my mother especially, wanted to go back to Japan so badly, but she, she just couldn't. Because she wanted to go visit her relatives, and she had kept -- my mother was the one that kept in contact with all the relatives in Japan because she knew that they were in need. They were, war was hard on them. And so she did everything she could to, to send them money, send them whatever she could. And, but she said, "Oh, I'd just love to go back to see the, to see the family property over there." And she never got to, and of course, so when she passed away and then the money came through, I said, "Tom," I says, "this is the first thing we're gonna do is go to Japan." Because I says I wanted to go to visit the relatives and I wanted to tell them how much my mother wanted to see them. And so that's what I used my money to because it was something that was, was important to my mother. And of course, my dad was, my dad was the one who always said, "Well, I came to America and this is where I live." And he had no thoughts of really going back. And of course, by the time they were able to, my dad was not well, and so they never did go. So I, that was the one way I used my money. I don't know what the rest of the family did with theirs, but I was, and I think those days were, they were just finally coming out of, out of being so poor, and they were able to finally get ahead. 'Cause I think by 1988, yes, they were, they were doing all right, their kids were out of school and so forth. But I was very, very determined that I was gonna go back. And I know my sisters and my brothers all did go back, too, so that was nice. And the relatives were just, the relatives were so pleased.

FK: Do you have any children?

SK: Huh?

FK: Do you have any children?

SK: I have... okay, Tom and I were married in 1956, after Tom had gotten out of the service. And we had three children: Nancy, Paul and Patty, and they all finished college, finished the university. And they all went into engineering, different fields of engineering. And they, so they've enjoyed a very happy life in their jobs. And Nancy's still in the field of engineering in Bellevue, and then Patty and Paul, Patty quit her job because she wanted to work with her husband and -- her husband's a, in construction, and so she went into real estate right there in Colorado. And then my son said the high tech business was too much so he quit, and I'm not quite sure what he's doing but he's, he's enjoying life. And so we get to see the kids often enough.

FK: Have you talked to them about -- your husband and you -- have you talked to them about your experiences?

SK: Oh, yes, they've asked. And I think my kids, Nancy wrote quite a, did quite a paper on that, and I thought she did very well. Patty and Paul, they understood what was going on, we did, we did take them to... we showed them camp. But it seems like they were always so busy that they didn't get to do too much with us as far as going to those places. And really, I really wanted to get into it, but they... I don't know, the kids' schedules and our schedules were very different [Laughs] But they're, they're very happy with what they're doing and we're just real pleased that they made it.