Densho Digital Archive - Mas Okabe Interview (denshovh-omas

<Begin Segment 28>

KL: So how do you think that your experiences during World War II, do you think they shaped the rest of your life?

MO: Uh-huh.

KL: How did they shape your thinking or the person you became?

MO: I think I became more focused, because like when I was working in the farm during the summer earning money, I said, "I don't want to do this for the rest of my life, I want to do something else." So that kind of helped shape my future. I think a lot of the Niseis felt that, too, but some of the older Nisei, it's too late for them, because they were already beyond that, college years and stuff like that. But us younger kids, we were able to kind of determine what we want to do and set out to do that. So I think we were kind of fortunate.

KL: What did your oldest brother do for a career?

MO: When he was going to junior college before the war, he was taking accounting, both of my brothers. So after that, when they came back to America, they worked as accountant for the city and one for the county or for the state, I can't remember which one was which.

KL: Okay. So since, you know, since Japanese American removal, you've grown up from being a child to being an adult, the country's gone through a civil rights movement, and how do you think the country, how do you see this now that's different from how you saw it then, and do you think the country sees it differently, and how?

MO: I see some improvement. There's still a lot of discrimination, but I think, I think getting a little better, but those being discriminated against don't feel that. But I think we're moving along okay. It's got to get better, that's what I think.

KL: If there's kind of one thing that people think of, what do you think is the most important thing about your experience? If someone watches this videotape in a hundred years, what do you want them to know about your life?

MO: Don't let this happen again, that's all I ask. Don't let this happen again. No more camp life. It's terrible for the parents, devastating.

KL: We appreciate your sharing this. What have I left out? Are there questions, are there stories you wanted to tell, or questions you guys have?

MO: Not really. I think I said all I wanted. After you leave, I'll think, "Oh, I should have said this, I should have said that," but you know.

KL: You can write me a letter.

MO: Yes, it's endless, endless.

KL: Yeah, I'm trying to exercise some self-discipline so that Alisa and Shirley can talk, too. Were there questions you two had that you wanted to ask?

AL: Well, I'm just curious about what it was like to be dating Reverend Nagatomi's daughter. Because at Manzanar, he is such a big character, so much bigger than life, and it seems to me that it might be a little intimidating to be the guy dating his daughter.

MO: I didn't know he was that big.

AL: What are your recollections of her parents?

MO: Okay, this is what she tells me. She said when I first -- there's quite an age difference between my wife and I, there's seven years' difference. And I was twenty... twenty-one? Well, anyway, there was quite a difference in age. So when I first went to her house to take her out, the mother knew that there was an age difference, and she also knew that I was a sailor, and sailors used to have a bad rap, right? Girl in every port and this and that, this and that. But I wasn't like that. [Laughs] And I tried, you know, I didn't go out of my way to be nice or anything like that, just try to be myself, and I think they accepted me eventually. He was a nice man, her father. He was a real nice man. Her mother was nice, too, treated me very well. Her siblings, her sisters, it was fun. It was fun growing up with them. I remember the first time I went to her house, her little sister, Shinobu, she was, what, about twelve? Yeah. Knock on the door, the door opened, and here's this little kid sticking her head out like she's waiting for me to show up. [Laughs] And sticks her head in, "He's here, he's here." I remember so vividly. So funny. And she was always hanging around. But she grew up to be a good kid. We miss her, we miss her; she passed away, but we miss her.