<Begin Segment 42>

KL: When you sisters all went to Japan, was kind of the beginning of when people were starting to speak more about the camps and their experiences there. Do you remember any of that, like Farewell to Manzanar coming out, the book, or any pilgrimages beginning?

AO: Yeah.

KL: What do you remember about that time, those conversations?

AO: Well, I used to go around to the schools early on. It used to be that in the fourth grade, part of the curriculum was studying Japan. So they would ask me to come in and talk about Japan, and I would show them how, show what the alphabet looks like, the Japanese alphabet, and write each class member's name on a piece of paper for them to take home. And then I'd also put in just a little bit about the war between Japan and the United States, and as a result, all the Japanese here in this country were rounded up and put in concentration camps.

KL: When did you begin speaking to schools?

AO: Probably in the '70s.

KL: Did you get an invitation, or did you do it through a group, or how did that start?

AO: It started when somebody thought it would be a good idea. One of my kids' class teachers asked me for the fourth grade, do the Japan unit. And I may not have mentioned camp at that time, but then I thought, this would be a good venue, and started to introduce a little bit about it. I didn't go into depth, but just dropped it.

KL: What was the response of the students?

AO: Most of them had never heard of it before. But...

KL: Were they surprised, or did they just kind of let it go?

AO: They just accepted it as another piece of information.

[Interruption]

KL: So you were talking about the children's response, and then I started coughing, and you started to say something else about your early talks to school groups.

AO: That's right. I'm not sure what year it was, but the high school here in Saratoga, history teacher, I guess, must have brought this up in history class, and so asked me to speak. And that was the first time I really talked about camp. Then he was no longer teaching there, and nobody else asked me. But then the word must have eventually got around, because I was going out to Santa Theresa, which then, this is before the freeway, so it took me an hour to get to school.

[Interruption]

AL: So, Aki, you were talking about visiting schools and talking with students. Did what you say to students or interest in having you speak to students change at all after September 11th? Do you think it's changed the way people look at this?

AO: I don't think there has been a change. They're all interested in this subject, but I always close my remarks before we leave, saying, "This is something that cannot happen again in this country. And you're soon going to be the voters, and you will have a say in this." There was a danger of people wanting to round up the people, where was that, Iran? I forget what country now. When was it, during...

KL: The 1980s?

AO: George Carter's...

AL: Oh, the Iran hostage crisis in the 1970s?

AO: Yes, yes. There was talk of rounding up all the Iranians. And the Japanese did speak out.

AL: Did you personally speak out?

AO: I spoke to people, to the classrooms, yeah. I didn't say anything to the congressmen. I didn't go to that extent.

AL: Did you ever have any students or parents contradicting your recollections of the camp?

AO: No.

<End Segment 42> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.