Densho Digital Archive - Mas Okabe Interview (denshovh-omas

<Begin Segment 26>

KL: You say you were married in 1960, and then I think the first Manzanar pilgrimage was in 1969, then people started to, I guess, be more open in the 1970s. How did you view those changes, or was your camp experience and your experience in Japan a big part of your life? How often did you think about it in the '60s and '70s?

MO: Yeah, I thought about it because my brothers were still there. My brother was still in Japan, he stayed there.

KL: Just one of them or both?

MO: Well, both of them stayed, and I came back, and then I earned money during the summer, and then I would send my brother that money and he would come back.

KL: Which one was that?

MO: The oldest one. And he came back and he started working. And then my other brother, the second oldest, he got a job as a civil service employee, so he was okay. He didn't have to come back. So he married over there, married a Japanese girl, and eventually he came back here.

KL: Did she come, too, his wife?

MO: Huh?

KL: Did his wife come to the United States?

MO: Yeah, they both came back.

KL: What about your parents?

MO: They came back right after my oldest brother came back, I think.

KL: When was that?

MO: Huh?

KL: Around what year was that?

MO: Let's see, they were back when I graduated dental school. Oh, that was just my mom and Taka? He passed away in '50.

KL: So he died in Japan?

MO: My mom was back in '59 already, because she came to my graduation. I can't remember what year it was she came back. Yeah, somewhere around there, '57, '58. She and my younger brother, they came back.

KL: What about your sister?

MO: Oh, she was still in the sanitarium.

KL: Did she stay there the rest of her life?

MO: No, no. She was... when did she get out? I can't remember. I guess back in the '50s. She got a job with the geological survey as a cartographer making maps and stuff. I can't remember what year that was.

KL: Was she getting treatment that whole time?

MO: Yeah, all that time. And then she was released, and then she got the job. I don't think she ever finished high school. So the job she got was making maps and stuff, it wasn't too difficult, she was okay with that.

KL: So she got training on the job?

MO: Yeah, uh-huh, she learned that.

KL: Do you think she was released by the time you graduated from dental school?

MO: Yeah, uh-huh, they were back.

KL: Did she have a recovery or was she pretty ill?

MO: Yeah, she recovered. She was okay for a long time.

KL: Did she ever tell you how it was to...

MO: No, she never did. I never asked. I should have, but I never did. It never occurs to ask things like that. I guess you're so involved in your own life, I guess you forget. It's sad.

KL: Or you think that they know already.

MO: Yeah. She never complained to us, anyway. I know she felt maybe abandoned, but she never told us. Now that you mention it, I feel bad now. [Laughs]

KL: Sorry.