<Begin Segment 15>

MA: And what did you tell your kids about the internment or about what happened during the war? Did they ask questions, and how did you communicate that with them?

MY: They didn't, I don't know. They just... I think they were interested, but I don't know if they knew enough to even ask questions. I'm part of a book that we wrote here in Minnesota. It's called Memoirs of Japanese American Women in Minnesota. And so I gave each of my grandkids a copy of our book so that they could get a little bit of history there. And they never really asked too many questions, and I hear that that's pretty common. Kids aren't picking up on it. I think it's the Sansei, the Yonseis that are picking up on this whole incident.

MA: So your grandkids, then, it seems like some of them are very interested in your experiences.

MY: Yeah. And even my son now, all of a sudden, is asking me all kinds of questions, which before, none of the kids ever talked about it.

MA: Do you think that the redress movement and the, sort of, government apology in the '80s for internment, do you think that contributed to this change in the way that people were aware of the internment or talked about the internment? Or what impact do you think that the redress had?

MY: On the general public, I don't think it had much influence or impact at all. Because it was never, it's never been published, it's always been kept under wraps. And even that was, the complaints you get is the amount of redress that we got, which we didn't even want.

MA: The complaints like people would say something to you...

MY: Saying that we got so much money. Not knowing why, really, because they don't even know why. I think that's one of the sore spots of that, which is too bad. But I've been doing the... I haven't lately, but I was doing a lot of speaking to high school upper class seniors, mostly, I think. One of the teachers were, the older generation of teachers that knew something about what happened, the younger teachers now, they don't know anything about it. So I haven't had any calls from anybody anymore. But I used to talk to high school groups, community college groups that would call and ask me to come and share.

MA: That's interesting that you noticed as the years went on, people became less aware of the internment and there was less of an interest.

MY: Right. The younger... and I think that's because of the topic being so hidden, you know. The government is ashamed of what they did, they don't want it publicized, so people don't know about it.

MA: And when you were speaking to students, what types of questions would they ask you? Were you ever surprised by something they asked or what they knew or didn't know about the internment?

MY: Most of 'em had never heard of such a thing. I have a set of pictures that I take and show them. And I try to make it as simple as possible, you know. But they did come up with questions of why. So they were, I think the high school seniors were perceptive. They were curious to know what went on and why. So I felt that we should at least let them know that such a thing did happen and could happen to anybody. I always tell 'em it could happen to anybody, so we need to know about it. That was my main purpose in sharing.

MA: Well, is there anything else you would like to share before we end, or any messages you'd like to leave or just anything else you'd like to talk about?

MY: Well, I think we've covered pretty much everything. My main thing is the blank that I have about what went on in camp. And I guess that's pretty common, evidently. Because so strange to live a year with people in a confined area and not remember what happened for a whole year. I was telling my son, "I don't remember making a single friend." And what I did, I don't remember. So it's too bad.

MA: Yeah, but like you were saying, maybe there was some, you maybe intentionally on some level blocked it out or something.

MY: Right, I'm sure that's what we did. Maybe it's a coping mechanism. But I have, I'm fortunate I have good health still at eight-six. So I can't complain that way, I guess. The hard labor was worth it, I guess. [Laughs] People ask me, "How in the world do you look so good at eighty-six?" I said I think it's because growing up on a farm doing hard labor, I think, is the key. Our bodies took a beating then. But I'm sure that's part of the preservation.

MA: I think so. Well, great, thank you so much. This has been a great time.

MY: Well, thank you for this opportunity, yes. I'm glad you're doing this to bring it to the attention of people.

MA: Thank you again.

MY: Thank you.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.