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RP: So let's shift to coming back to California. And you settled back into the Boyle Heights area. And, what did your... how was resettlement for your father and mother? Were they able to find work? I mean your father had this very successful business before the war and...

MW: He was like a handyman later on. I remember he would do a lot of work for the neighbors and everything. He was a handyman. And then my mom, of course, was a homemaker. By then I think my dad was in his sixties or something. And I remember he had headaches. But they didn't, they, I don't remember them mentioning camp or anything like that. I really don't.

RP: Did you, were you able to find housing upon returning to Los Angeles or did you have to...

MW: Right. Because, well, we went into East L.A. and that was a very mixed area anyway. Whereas, I mean, we didn't try to go to Beverly Hills or any of the exclusive areas. I'm sure they wouldn't allow it. Back then no Asians could buy in those areas.

RP: Right.

MW: Uh-huh. So we settled in a place that already there were Asians. I feel that after the war if we could have come back to Los Angeles, here to the area that we were in, that I would not have experienced the prejudice because there were a lot of Japanese people that came back here. And there were Latinos and all different ethnicities. But the unfortunate thing was we went to a white area, I mean, at that time, and so that was not a good experience. But, like I say, at that time, that was my formative years and that stayed with me immensely is that year and a half that we were in Utah.

RP: Utah. What was your father doing at that time in Utah?

MW: Tell you the truth, I don't remember.

RP: So do you ever want to go back to Utah or visit?

MW: At one time I definitely said, "I'll never set foot in that state." Which is a ridiculous thing because it's not everybody. Like I said, they're wonderful people. But then, now I think, well that's ridiculous and maybe one day I would really like to go back and see the house we lived in, that apartment. In fact, coincidentally, I met up with the, a gal that lived in the apartments. But she didn't go to camp. She was Japanese but she didn't go to camp 'cause they lived in Washington and they, you had to move away, you had to come inland. And that's why they, they moved to Utah, so they wouldn't have to go to camp. So, whereas on the West Coast... I mean, we were right here in Los Angeles. But my daughter is a deputy public defender, and she's an activist in every, every word. And just a wonderful gal. And one time there was a play on this incarceration and we went to see it. And somehow it just hit me. And she started asking me questions that nobody had ever asked me. And it just really touched a nerve. And I think maybe that might have been the start of where I started thinking, "Well, maybe I should speak up about Manzanar." 'Cause up 'til then I really didn't speak with my boys or, not much. Of course they never asked either. And so...

RP: So that started it.

MW: Pardon?

RP: That, that begun the ball rolling for you.

MW: Right.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.