<Begin Segment 26>

SY: So as you were growing up, going to high school and after camp, did you feel any negative... or how did other Japanese Americans treat you if they knew that you were at Tule Lake?

NG: I did not -- yeah, I did not feel any, no one ever said, "Oh, you were --" I shouldn't say that. Some people, they said, "You were in Tule Lake?" There was, like, an inflection.

SY: Your friends?

NG: Yeah.

SY: Was there, was this from friends in high school?

NG: Yeah. Right, but it, it's like Susie Katsuda, who said, "Oh, you were in Tule Lake?" I mean, it was like, "Wow, good for you." So it all, I think it all made, it was different with different people. But it's funny you ask, because I've gone to a lot of different forums, and in fact, Phil Shigekuni wants to do this program after he saw -- I didn't get to see that film, No-No Boy, I think it was. No, not No-No Boy. It was another one. I saw No-No Boy. It was another --

SY: Right, it was The Cats of Mirikitani, was it?

NG: No, no, no. There was another play and it was, she, it was a play about, she, one of them was in Tule Lake and one of them was not, and then they, there was, and they meet years later. And after that play they had, like a...

SY: Discussion?

NG: I think it was Kashiwagi's play, the father. Anyway --

SY: Hiroshi.

NG: -- so Phil wanted to do, he felt that there needs to be, like, a healing for that group of people, and so he said, so I went to my, 'cause I said my parents never talked about being, feeling less than that they went to Tule Lake, and so I went, I did it several times, asked my mom and my aunt if they ever felt any hostility from the Japanese American community just because you went to Tule Lake. And they both say no. They just, they did not. But Phil, who has already this, he finds that kind of hard to believe, but I mean, I've said, "They say no." And I know as a, today, in today's context, I'm happy, I'm glad my dad said no 'cause I said to him, I think I told this story about one Sunday -- 'cause we used to go to dinner every Sunday at my mom's -- and I said, "You know, the radio could be saying, 'Go to camp,' and you just went to camp. But at least you said 'no-no.'" [Laughs] So today, in this context it's different, but, so I don't really... and especially with all the, more and more people bringing those things out, you don't, I don't feel less than. I feel like I'm glad we were...

SY: Yeah.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.