<Begin Segment 11>

FK: You said when you first came back, there was some feelings about the Japanese here, some feelings against the Japanese here. What kind of things do you remember as far as people having some feelings about the Japanese coming back? Do you remember...

GN: Well, I didn't see any anti-feeling. I didn't look for it.

FK: Now, why do you suppose that was? Why don't you think there were any feelings? I mean, a lot of communities had feelings about the Japanese coming back, why do you think Bainbridge didn't have them?

GN: I just, growing up on Bainbridge and the good memories and the good friends we had, and like my brother got his old business back, the grocery store. You know, Frank, I guess I was, I never experienced racism, I guess they used to call it. I just remember the good times. [Laughs]

FK: Okay. Now, you had mentioned Walt Woodward before, what does Walt Woodward mean to you?

GN: Oh, yeah. I didn't know what he did, but I hear a lot of things through Paul Ohtaki who was a junior, a Japanese kid who worked for Walt during the war, or before the war. And I remember Paul telling me when, when Pearl Harbor happened, I think it was Sam, Art and my brother went down, and Walt told 'em, "You people here, Japanese people, don't get together, that's bad." This is what Paul told me. And then when the war -- well, you know what Walt Woodward stood for, he says it was the right thing to do. This, I hear all this about what Walt Woodward did. I would say he's my hero, and my other hero is my friends and classmates from Bainbridge. So, well, 'til this day, Walt -- we talk about Walt. And I think Mary Woodward is doing a good job carrying on that philosophy of feeling what his folks, folks had.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.