Densho Digital Archive
National Japanese American Historical Society Collection
Title: George S. Matsui Interview
Narrator: George S. Matsui
Interviewer: Marvin Uratsu
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: December 11, 1997
Densho ID: denshovh-mgeorge-01-0023

<Begin Segment 23>

MU: Do your children, or the grandchildren ask you about your army experience at all?

GM: No, no. 'Cause my kids has, they haven't. Two girls, they're busy in their home (...) trying to make ends meet.

MU: In their lives?

GM: Yes.

MU: How 'bout assembly centers, and relocation center, they ask about that at all?

GM: No. They, they -- no, they don't -- no, they don't ask. I think at first, Robin, but my first-born did 'cause she was, she belonged to this Bay area JACL. But now, I don't think she has any Asian friends. She has some Chinese friends.

MU: Uh-huh. Well, right now the Japanese and Chinese are intermarrying and...

GM: Yeah.

MU: ...so I guess it's natural. Now, when you look back on your life, what kept you going through all the...?

GM: All the turmoil?

MU: Yeah.

GM: Gosh, I don't know. What kept me going? See what's there for me tomorrow. That's the only way I can explain it.

MU: Just live for to --

GM: Live for the future.

MU: Live for tomorrow.

GM: Yeah.

MU: Do you have any...

GM: Regrets?

MU: Yeah.

GM: I have all kinds of regrets. But, there isn't anything I can do, right? Just to forget about it.

MU: About it. Yeah. So you've got to accentuate the positive.

GM: Right.

MU: And that's what you're doing.

GM: Uh-huh. Try to make myself and my family happy. Not to dwell on bad thing that has happened.

MU: You tell your children that?

GM: Both of my kids know about me -- that I was a soldier overseas, in the Pacific. Fought with the Japanese.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.