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MN: Anything else you want to share?

GK: Yeah, I want to share one other incident that happened at Manzanar that my dad didn't seem to remember very well. Because of the success of the Manzanar guayule project, there were some articles written about that success. One article was written in the Washington Post, another article was written that was even blocked from publication because it praised what the Japanese Americans were doing in contributing to the war effort. But because their success made, the articles made the Manzanar success, that story was also embarrassing for the Salinas group if you were to compare the two. But the article should have emphasized the contributions that were being made by the Salinas group, because they were producing most of the rubber that was needed. The Manzanar group wasn't producing any rubber. They were doing research on the way to improve the quality of the rubber. And so these two groups were working... they both were adding some value to this enterprise. But because the articles were written in such a way that praised the Japanese Americans at Manzanar but kind of, and embarrassed the Salinas group, it, I guess, ruffled a few feathers. And so one of the things that happened was that one of the councilmembers of the Salinas Chamber of Commerce wrote a letter to J. Edgar Hoover to investigate what the Japanese were doing, and accused the Japanese Americans of sending rubber seeds, guayule rubber seeds back to Japan. They were just accusing them of all kinds of espionage and stuff like that. But anyway, so what happened was that they decided that, the camp director decided to shut the project down. So he ordered the water and the electricity shut off at the Manzanar guayule project. But what they didn't realize was that my dad and Swish Ogura snuck in at night 'cause my dad had a key. They snuck in at night and kept the plants alive. So it cut off for probably a few weeks, no water, no electricity except at night when my dad and Swish Ogura were in there watering the plants to keep the project going. And so I wanted to make that point, that their success came at a cost. There was a lot of distrust, and also at the end, when Congress was given a report, the Emergency Rubber Project, given by the Salinas group, the USDA, basically, about a paragraph was written just mentioning that there was some work done at Manzanar. And so they were not given any recognition or credit for the work that they had done. And one of my interests in doing research on this particular project is I'd like people to be recognized for their accomplishments. The Wind Talkers, the Navajos, were not given any credit for their work, the Tuskegee Airmen were not given credit for their work for a long time. The women aviators were not given credit for their work for many, many years. It was only after, many, many years after the war that people were recognized for their contributions. So that's how I got interested in this project. I really wanted to see people recognized.

And also probably one of the most important people to recognize is Robert Emerson. He dedicated a lot of his time and effort to support the Japanese Americans interned at Manzanar. He would bring back fruit and vegetables, whatever the workers wanted. He would go and pick the satsuma plums that were requested by some of the workers, he'd hand-pick 'em himself. He would ride his bike to and from his home in Cal Tech in order to save on the gas ration coupons. Because at the time, gas was rationed, and you could only buy so much gas with the coupons that you had. So he saved his gas coupons so that he could drive up to Manzanar, so that he can work with the internees to help them with the project. And I believe, in my opinion, he had a lot of knowledge of plants. He was a plant physiologist, so he was a pioneer in photosynthesis research, one of the most important areas of cell physiology, is photosynthesis research. He was one of the leaders. He made some very important discoveries. But he had to put some of that research on hold to help the Japanese Americans at Manzanar, and I want him to get full credit for his contributions.

MN: But he must have seen something very special with your father because he got special permission for your father to go out in '44.

GK: Yeah, so he actually wanted... he wanted my father to actually become a graduate student. But I think what happened was my dad happened to see a check that one of the, I guess, professors had, a paycheck or something like that, and he says he can make a lot more money doing gardening work, because professors at that time were not being paid very much. And so here I am, a professor. [Laughs]

MN: But it's very prestigious.

GK: Well, yeah, but you get prestige or money. Like if I were a researcher at a pharmaceutical company, I could probably make twice as much, but I would not have the freedom to do the research that I'm interested in. That's the difference. So you have advantages and disadvantages. So I think everything worked out, I enjoy the work that I do.

MN: I'm sure your father's very proud of you for bringing in the guayule project in your lectures.

GK: Yeah, and so yeah, the students are amazed. It's a nice, quick demo, takes about twenty minutes. You take just branches of a desert shrub, you shred it up, you put it in a blender, mix it with sodium sulfite and a little bit of ethanol. And you grind it up, after twenty minutes, the latex floats to the top. They're called guayule worms 'cause they're kind of worm-like in shape. And then you just gather up, you can just reach in and press it together, press it together, and when you press it together it adheres and you can form a little rubber ball. From stem to ball in twenty minutes. It's an amazing demonstration, actually.

MN: During this lecture, though, do you share that it was, this was done in Manzanar?

GK: Yes, I do. I talk about the contributions made by the internees and also by Robert Emerson. I give them the whole history, I'll give them the one hour of lecture just talking about the topic. And it's usually the students' favorite lecture.

MN: Do you ever have your father come over and do any lectures?

GK: Not at Cal Poly. But we have done demonstrations together for the Manzanar reunion, we did a presentation. And we've been invited to different groups to speak, mostly in Southern California. And we gave one presentation at the interpretive center. Actually, I think a couple presentations.

MN: Okay, thank you very much. Is there anything else you want to add to this?

GK: No, I think that's about it.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.