<Begin Segment 2>

FC: So you retired from the Air Force after, Air Corps after the thirtieth mission, or what happened?

BK: No, I came back to the States and of all the darn things that happened, the Air Force, when anybody returned from the missions to the States, they send them to a rest and rehabilitation home. And of all the places they sent me to was Santa Monica, California. And it was the old Edgewater Beach Hotel in Santa Monica, so I was there three months. And probably as a result of that, I was probably the first Japanese to come back to the West Coast since the evacuation, just because they assigned me to come back to Santa Monica.

FC: Were you welcomed in Santa Monica?

BK: Well, yes and no. Time Magazine came out and interviewed me, of course, and the story and result of that, why, the people in San Francisco immediately tried to get me to come up there to speak.

FC: What people in San Francisco?

BK: It was the Commonwealth Club. It was Dr. Monroe Deutsche who was vice provost of the University of California, and Ruth Kingman who was with the Principles and Fair Play Committee. Those groups arranged for me to come up to speak to the Commonwealth Club. And even before that happened, why, I was going to appear on a national radio program, the Ginny Simms, with Ginny Simms. And at the last minute I was taken off of the program, removed, because NBC officials decided that the Japanese American question was too controversial in California.

FC: Hmm.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1998, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.