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EK: So what, if anything, did you know about the Japanese American internment prior to starting with ORA?

AG: That would be a big zilch. So I come from upstate Maryland--Elkton, Maryland, Newark, Delaware. When I came to the project, I really believed, because of the media, that all Japanese people lived in New York, I had no idea. So I'm like, oh, California, that's not New York. Oh, Chicago, oh, Utah, none of that's New York. So I don't think it was... it wasn't in my schoolbooks. I definitely think that it was an attempt to negate a part of our history that really is a learning experience, and so I had no idea. It was learning about it through work was really exciting. And in my hometown, I had always been told, never saw for myself, but had always been told that the Klan would march on Martin Luther King's, the date of his death, in a certain part of the county. So when I would come home, I wouldn't say what I did, because I'm like, okay, you're already racist over here, I don't need to tell you what I'm doing at work. I also didn't tell other African Americans, because the first questions were, "Well, where's our forty acres and a mule?" And if I wasn't paying attention and I answered the question with what I did, I was able to take it as an opportunity to say in internment camps, people were organizing. People were saying, "Wait a minute, I was born in New Jersey, this is not right," and were able to organize for that first act that happened in the '40s, and then to continue on with it and to persevere, and to say, you know what, I wasn't with you, but I know you were there, so let me write a statement for you, and it doesn't matter that you might be two days older than I am, I'm still going to support you. And that's not something that was necessarily seen in the African American community. So definitely had some conversations with people, when I went to my ten-year high school reunion, I was clutching my pocketbook, and so, "Oh, you know, Angela's an FBI agent."

I'm like, "Ya'll know I don't run, come on." But then when they would ask me what I would do, and then I explained, yeah, I worked for the Office of Redress Administration, this is what we do. And people are like, "Well, why don't we learn about that in school?" And I'm like, I have no idea. I said, it was just a piece of history that was not shared. I am pleased to say that it is now covered with Farewell to Manzanar. I know my son read it in the seventh grade, and unfortunately for him, I read the syllabus, and when I went to parent-teacher conference, I talked to his English teacher, I'm like, "Oh, I've seen the rosters from Manzanar, I used to work with this program," blah-blah-blah, and I went and I did a whole day of, as a parent I went and did a full day of explanation. This was my experience, this is what we did, and he didn't want to acknowledge me. My children look exactly like me, they're just boys, so everybody knew. They're like, "Oh, that's Jake's mom," I'm like, "Yeah, hi." And I chaperoned other trips, so I'm like, okay, how do you think I'm going to get away with this? But the kids were very engaged, and I made them cranes, I did origami, I was very proud of myself. But now, today, I know it is covered. Farewell to Manzanar wasn't written when I was in school, but even so, everybody was like, "I like Ike," that's all they wanted to talk about.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2019 Emi Kuboyama. All Rights Reserved.