<Begin Segment 14>

AL: When you went to Manzanar the first time you said it was late. What was the circumstance the first time you went back to Manzanar? Did you go specifically to see Manzanar or were you just passing by it?

AO: No. Well, one day we were on a trip going up to Reno. And then I said, well, I want to drive in. At that time where the gate was, and you went straight. See, there's no indication of whether to go to the right or to the left. And as I went forward, the sand under was so loose I says, I'd better not go in too far because I knew I might get stuck, so I backed out and left. I wanted to go back towards where the cemetery was but there was an area to the north where you could go back. I didn't know that road was cleared enough to go in the back section.

AL: What was it like emotionally to see it again?

AO: It was a place where I was, that's all, the way I felt. Being in camp I didn't feel that it affected my feelings. The only thing I had in my mind was the attitude of General DeWitt. And I think even in military they didn't really appreciate the way he enforced the internment of the Japanese.

AL: You originally were "no-yes" and then your mother changed your answer, is that right?

AO: That's true.

AL: Okay, so if you had been... if it hadn't been for your parents, do you think you would've wanted to stay in the United States?

AO: If I was inducted I probably would have remained in the United States.

AL: When was the first time that you went back to Tule Lake?

AO: Tule Lake pilgrimage I thought it was great to go back to the camp where all my emotions to go to Japan and each step going to Tule Lake, doing the Hokoku Seinendan, was one step to going to Japan. And then being transferred to Fort Lincoln, Bismarck, North Dakota, was another step closer to being, going to Japan. And then the day to leave was the last week of December 1945.

AL: So the war was already over?

AO: Yes, war was over. And I felt that I'm leaving never to return to the United States. But most of the ones, the young boys my age never did go to Japan, they changed their mind.

AL: Did you have an opportunity to change your mind?

AO: Probably yes.

AL: But you didn't want to?

AO: No, because I wanted to keep the family intact.

AL: Did the rest of your family... you said your father didn't come back but your brother, your sisters, did they all come back to the States?

AO: Yes, after they were... the Collins case was overturned, reunciants, and so my brother came back.

AL: So he was a renunciant also?

AO: Yes.

AL: Was everybody in your family, did everybody renounce?

AO: Yes, my sister I don't know if she was considered renouncee or not. But she married GI and came back.

AL: So you... I don't know how when you and Richard connected in 2004, do you remember how you met Richard or how you came to do that interview in 2004? Did you meet him at Manzanar?

AO: Evidently we met at Manzanar and he said that he wanted to make an interview and so he called and came to our house and he came twice.

AL: Were you at the grand opening of the interpretive center in 2004?

AO: I really don't recall.

AL: Okay, what did you, though, I mean, coming back and seeing how the story is being told now or the fact that you know Manzanar is now part of the National Park Service? Tule Lake just recently became a part of the National Park Service. What is your feeling about it? I mean we are... the National Park Service is the federal government?

AO: Yes.

AL: We are an agency of the U.S. Department of Interior just like the War Relocation Authority was. What was your feeling about having the federal government take over Manzanar, Tule Lake, Minidoka?

AO: I think it's a great idea.

AL: How come?

AO: I felt that the United States government wanted to preserve the memory of these camps. And then as the camp authorities would ask me to be a docent, I'm more than happy to do that. And I feel that myself I've experience a one of a kind experience, and because I was loyal to the United States government, especially getting medication for Count Tachibana. I read quite a bit of books and one of the person that frequents Manzanar loaned me a book called, A Bridge to the Sun. Have you heard of it?

AL: I've heard of it but I haven't read it.

AO: It's about Gwen Harold who married a Japanese diplomat 1931 and they had a child in Shanghai, and the time of Pearl Harbor the child was nine years old and all the diplomats were ordered to go into internment camp. Gwen Harold to keep the family intact never separated from the family and she was on the Gripsholm as a diplomatic exchange and spent the war years in Japan. And then after the war was over, her daughter needed appendix surgery so she knew the secretary of the state so she went to the embassy to ask the secretary of state to have the U.S. military hospital permission to have her child being to have surgery at the military hospital. She had to ask for it. In my case when Gene was born Colonel Duryea said to Kimi, "When you're ready to deliver, you have your baby in my hospital." I didn't have to ask for permission it was granted to me automatically. And our medical care was automatically granted to us.

AL: Because you worked for the U.S.?

AO: Yes.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright &copy; 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.