<Begin Segment 4>

WH: Now, when you were shooting this film, did you think it was for history's sake? I mean, what was, what was your thought?

DT: No, it was very, very simple; it was just a hobby. See, I started taking movies way back, you see, it was when that friend died, and I've taken underwater video now for twenty-five, twenty-five years I was underwater video, taking video, of sharks and all that. And it was just a hobby; nothing professional about it. And people said, "Why don't you show it on TV?" I said, "Oh, it doesn't matter. I'm just doing it for a hobby, for fun." Nothing.

WH: Does it surprise you that it's come to have historic significance?

DT: Well, I could imagine why, because of the fact that it was taken secretly behind the barbed wire, when it was not supposed to. And it was not edited, I mean, no one told us, told me what to take, I took, anything I took, you see. But, of course, having done it secretly, I couldn't take open shots too much. Well, you know, very intimate shots.

WH: Now, did you have a light meter? I mean, your exposure looks very good.

DT: No, no, no light meter. Just amateur movie-making.

WH: How many reels total did you take?

DT: Pardon?

WH: How many movie reels total?

DT: Well, you see, in Topaz, as I said, I only have one hour, about an hour, that's all. But others I have taken, I took the camera back east when I was on a buying trip, and I remember taking pictures in Philadelphia and Chicago, saw my friends and all that. And I was taking a chance because at that time, one Nisei taking pictures from a bridge in, out there, was caught taking pictures, snapshots. And here I was taking movies, but I was lucky. No one stopped me, and it was kind of a miracle story when you think of it. And it even happened, if I didn't get the camera in the first place, nothing would have happened.

WH: Some of those shots are very evocative, like the half-Italian, half-Japanese young women, they look so lonely out there. Were they accepted by the rest of the evacuees?

DT: No, no, they were very nice children. Very nice kids, and they got along well with everybody. Oh yeah, there was no discrimination against the Italian Japanese.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2005 Densho and The Japanese American Film Preservation Project. All Rights Reserved.