<Begin Segment 10>

FA: When you worked as a gardener after the war in the high school, they asked you to write an article in the paper.

MK: Yes.

FA: Okay. You were, you wrote the article, why did you feel... why did you write the article -- they asked you, obviously, but why did you write it when they asked you?

MK: Well, I felt, I felt that I should tell the truth, especially about the Japanese Americans in Heart Mountain, and that it was sort of a obligation on my part. I couldn't stand that good, good story that people who went to camp were happy and they did everything the government did because they wanted to do it. I wanted to write that that was wrong, that's completely wrong, and that Japanese American historians that write Japanese American history write just to, just to please white America and they're willing to stretch the truth. The reason I spoke up is because I want the people, especially the Sansei and Yonsei to really know what really happened in the camps.

FA: After the war, Mits, you went through many years of silence, didn't talk about it to anyone, why didn't you talk about it, in your experience?

MK: Well, to be honest, when we came back, the first priority was to make a living, and I can honestly say that most of the Japanese Americans and their families in the Santa Clara Valley worked seven days a week just, just trying to get back to normal, it took 'em many, many years. And that's, that's where we were silent because we didn't have the time. Survival was much more important at that time.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1993, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.