Densho Digital Archive - Mas Okabe Interview (denshovh-omas

<Begin Segment 27>

KL: When... do you remember like when Farewell to Manzanar came out, the book, or people starting to talk about the camps in the '70s.

MO: No. Manzanar was something else, it was their experience, not mine.

KL: What about when people started organizing for redress or arguing for...

MO: Well, redress, we never got involved in that. I didn't know anything about it. I just heard that it was going on through the JACL, and I never...

KL: Were you ever a part of the JACL?

MO: No. Well, we did join, but it was for some other reason, to get health insurance.

KL: That's why I joined the Association of National Park Rangers at one point, yeah. What did you think when you heard about it?

MO: Well, I thought it's okay. Not us, but I thought my parents deserved something, but at that time they were both passed away. But I thought they should address this to our parents before they passed away. They should have gotten the money, not us. But they lost a lot. I mean, $25,000 wouldn't have covered anything in this day and age. But we didn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

KL: If your parents had survived, what do you think their response would have been?

MO: I don't know. I don't know. My dad was a hard-head, you know. He might have taken it, accepted it, I don't know. I don't know what his feeling would be. I'm sure he had hard feelings toward the United States.

KL: When you received the letter, the presidential apology, what was your response to that?

MO: Yeah, I thought that was good for them to do it. But I still thought it should have been to our parents, not us. Because you know, for us young kids in camp, all we did was play and eat. Our parents were the ones that suffered. Somehow, I wish they could have been... not rewarded, but paid back.

KL: Have there been any... have there been any other times when you were reminded of that climate where Japanese American removal happened, any other times in your life where you've seen either the papers speaking similarly or people speaking about groups in that way? Have you been reminded of the World War II time at other times?

MO: I'm sure there has been, but I can't recall. No, I can't recall anything like that. But I'm sure I felt like we shouldn't have had been asked to move, you know, not asked, forced to move.

KL: You guys have a couple kids, yeah?

MO: Beg your pardon?

KL: You guys have a couple children.

MO: Yes.

KL: Tell me about, tell me about when they were born and who they are.

MO: Well, my daughter was born in '61, and Keith was born about seven years... '67, so that's about seven years. And they both went to school here, grammar school here in San Jose. They both went to high school here, then college, Tish went to USC, and my son went to San Jose State.

KL: Your daughter's Tish and your son is Keith?

MO: Yeah. After she graduated, she got married and stayed there. I guess she's happy down there. I would never want to live in L.A.

KL: Have you, did you ever talk with them about your family's experiences?

MO: Well, they ask sometimes, we tell them, but we don't elaborate. We don't say, "Sit down, we're going to tell you," about this or that. Maybe this will help them.