<Begin Segment 19>
RP: Do you have any other stories or memories that you'd like to share with us that we haven't mentioned?
SK: Well, I don't know. I'm just a happy go lucky, I mean, every day to me is heaven. I'm glad I'm alive. Yes, I'm glad I'm in good health and I thank God every day. At my age, I can still get around, I can still cook the way I want to with the food I like, and I can drive, yeah. 'Course, my expiration's gonna, I think I have another two years yet. [Laughs] Last time I passed my driver's, I was happy.
RP: Okay.
KP: One more thing, did you get the redress?
RP: Sorry. Do you recall the effort to obtain redress, an apology where the government admitted that what they did to you and a hundred and twenty thousand other people was wrong, should never have happened?
SK: What was that now?
RP: It was called --
SK: To me, those things, I didn't care. I said, okay, let it go. I didn't care.
RP: You didn't want to be reminded of it?
SK: No, I didn't want to be reminded. I'm glad I'm here today. Yeah, I'm glad our family's fine.
RP: You remember getting a check for twenty thousand dollars?
SK: Yeah, that I remember. Yes, that I remember. That, I remember. I said, "Twenty thousand, gee. What are we gonna do for twenty thousand?" But that was it. So we, I put that in saving for some time, though, but savings in those days, well, even now it's worse yet 'cause you're, things are really down there. But it was in there for some time. That's about it.
RP: So you had no, you didn't have any opinion about the government apologizing for that wrong?
SK: Well, to me, war is war. It's one of those things that does happen, see. It's not our fault, so I just let it go at that. I says, okay, we're just thankful we're here, everything's okay for us. That's the way I felt.
RP: If a young person came up to you today and asked you to share any insights or wisdom based on your experiences at Manzanar, what would you tell them?
SK: Well, I'll tell 'em it's a nice group of people, but not for me, I'd tell, I would tell 'em that. Yeah, I didn't care for it. I mean, to me, I hated that place. I just couldn't stand it. But then, did it, we stood by. The only thing that kept me going was help the people in the hospital, and I enjoyed in the lab. To me, that was wonderful. "Oh," I said, "This is happening, and that is happening to that person." To me that's, some of the persons, that really surprised me. But that was it. Manzanar. [Laughs] To me that was the most, I wouldn't know how to say it, but the wind would blow one side, one way, next day it would blow the other way.
RP: Well, thank you very much, Sumi, for your stories.
SK: No, I'm not much of a... [Laughs]
RP: No, that's how you felt about it.
SK: That's the way I felt.
RP: So you shared that, and I appreciate that.
<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.