<Begin Segment 20>

AL: Your father's birth parents, we've talked a lot about your brother being with your maternal grandparents, but did your father stay in touch with his own parents?

SO: Uh-huh. Whenever he sent telegrams through the Red Cross, he always sent one to his mother, and then she passed away, so he would send it to his older brother.

AL: Did their families both survive the war?

SO: Yes, yes. And I remember after camp sending, we always sent two care packages, used to send candy and coffee, the basics. We used to send it to both sides of the family.

AL: So when did your brother come over?

SO: He came about, I think in about '52. But he went directly to Harvard where he studied, then became a professor there eventually. That's where he retired.

AL: So he spent his whole life at Harvard.

SO: Uh-huh, but he used to come home to visit us.

AL: What do you think your grandparents thought about him leaving? Because they'd had him his whole life.

SO: No, they were gone by then.

AL: Oh, they were?

SO: Yeah, they were gone by then.

AL: And your sisters, how did they adopt after the war, adapt after the war?

SO: Adapt? I think pretty well, because when we went to... I was in elementary school, but my sister went to Gardena junior high, and I think Jeannie was just starting kindergarten. But I didn't feel any prejudice. People were pretty nice. And there were not too many Asians or Hispanics, it was mostly a white community. But I never felt any prejudice.

AL: How integrated was your father into the non-Buddhist community?

SO: Not much. It's mainly just church and activities.

AL: How did their lives evolve after the war?

SO: Well, I think they were working hard to try to reestablish the church in Gardena, so he started teaching Japanese school at that point. And my mother did her flower arranging, and that's when she was a janitor of the church.

AL: Did you go to Japanese language school?

SO: Uh-huh, just for a short time.

AL: What did you think of it?

SO: Hard.

AL: Was it hard?

SO: It was hard.

AL: Was your father your teacher?

SO: No, no, I was never in my parents' class. My mother taught the elementary and my father taught the more advanced students. Those teachers were strict.

AL: What do you think your father would think, and your mother, today, that seventy years later we're talking to you about it, we still have the monument, we're getting 85,000 visitors a year. What do you think he would think of this?

SO: I think he would be surprised and pleased. Because I think when they built that, I think they were trying to build it so it would be there forever. So in a way I think it's a symbol of no more war.

AL: What do you think is most important, not just about the monument, but about this whole experience and why we talk about it? You know, the same question that Kristen asked Mas about, you know, a hundred years from now, if somebody looks at this or reads this, what do you think it's most important to remember?

SO: I think perhaps they should teach everyone that war has no positive conclusions. Everything is negative.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.