<Begin Segment 20>

JA: How did you feel when the government decided to make redress, and the President made an apology?

HT: It took a long time, but I think that they made the right move. I think that was the move that they should have made. I'm sorry that it didn't happen 'til way later.

JA: Did it make up for what happened to you?

HT: What happened to me, no. All of a sudden, as to what has happened to me, everything that I believed in as a child and until all this has happened to me, it was dashed to the ground, and it took me so long to come out of the shell. You know, it's funny, you know how, how it plays -- a thing like this plays on your mind, mind and in here. [Gestures to heart] They go in hand and hand. It hurts. Number one, it hurts to be doubted. But as far as the whatchamacallit, the government coming out with this apology, I think it took a lot of guts, took a lot of chance, and it's like during the war, you know, it's so many people were against the Japanese civilians, and it's just like when the government made the apology, they didn't know how it was going to end up, I don't think. They did the right thing. But as for whether it made up for everything? No.

JA: How do you feel about this country? I notice you have a voting pin on?

HT: Beg your pardon?

JA: I notice you're wearing a pin, that you voted?

HT: Oh, this was yesterday.

JA: That's fine. That says something about how you feel about this country to me.

HT: Well, I've never went without it. I never went without it. I made sure I went, and I voted. My kids are the same way. I made sure that the kids got the same education that I had gotten, although with me, I couldn't get the education that I wanted to. But as for my kids, at least they got what they wanted, what I wanted, and I'm just hoping and praying that they learn how to think for themselves.

JA: Are you back to believing what Mrs. McDougall said?

HT: Yes, yes, I am. As a matter of fact, it was just the other day I was talking to my daughter and somehow we fell into elementary school. My daughter is in, in the educational system, and I told her, "I wish you'd become a Mrs. McDougall." She's trying. All my kids are trying.

JA: That's good. How do you feel about the United States today?

HT: There's no other place; there's no other place that can compare to it. Although our differences may be there, but like Mrs. McDougall says, the nucleus is there. We are so proud, and we always will, at least my kids will, I know they will. Because some of the things that I've gone through, I wouldn't want them to go through. It's unfair, and it's not right. Perhaps some people will say, "Well, he brought it on himself." That's fine and dandy, but I firmly believe in what Mrs. McDougall says, and I always will. That'll never change. That will never change. It's sixty years, sixty years. [Laughs] And there's a lot of people who doesn't even know what had happened at that time, you know. That's the pitiful part of it, and I just hope and pray that with this program here that you have going, even if it touches one person, it's worth it.

JA: What should it teach them?

HT: Learn how to think. Don't be a sheep. Just because someone says this, don't all follow him. Learn how to think and learn how to get involved. That's my firm belief, and I know my kids will always keep trying.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2002 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.