<Begin Segment 43>

AL: So have you visited... I know that you went to the Heart Mountain reunion, because that's where we first met. Have you visited Poston or Salinas Assembly Center? If so, what has it been like to go back?

AO: Well, Salinas Assembly Center is no longer the barracks there or anything, and it's now the new fairgrounds, so everything is very modern. But they have a little garden set aside to mark that this was the site of an assembly center, and sort of like a Japanese garden. And Poston, the year we went to, I think it was the year we went to... no, it was '07, we had a family reunion near Tucson, Arizona. And so after the reunion, we drove back through the area which was Poston, and there was really nothing, almost nothing there. I think there was a marker. But since then, I believe they've had some fundraising, and have a little bit more to commemorate.

AL: What did it feel like to be back there?

AO: It was just so different than what I remember Poston being. Of course, there were no barracks and all that. And even the landscape just did not look at all like the landscape I remember.

AL: Were you at all involved in the redress movement, or following the redress movement?

AO: No, I did not get involved with that. I was a member of the local JACL, Japanese American Citizens League, and supported all the efforts and everything, but did not actively participate.

AL: What did you think when you got the apology and the reparations?

AO: The apology was great. Well, the funds were great, too, but it just, in a way, was almost like a slap in the face. Because it's like we're gonna buy you off if you stop complaining type of thing. But the other thing that really griped me for a long time was Earl Warren was governor of California at the time of evacuation, and wholly supported the thing. Yet, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he did not add his name to the apology. And that was, I don't know, it just made me angry when I'd think of it.

AL: What can you tell us about your mother's life after the war?

AO: She... I think all the hardship and worries and everything contributed to her rheumatoid arthritis, and so she suffered a lot from that. But she worked right through it, she would use her crutches and board the bus to go to San Francisco to see the doctor. We had found a good doctor who was very kind, where she loved him. Unfortunately he died early, I think it was leukemia or something like that. And she wholly supported everything that we were doing, and she never stopped studying herself. So when it became possible for her to become a citizen, she studied the Constitution and passed the exam and got her citizenship.

AL: What did that feel like for you to see her then?

AO: It was joy to see my mother accomplish this. And wholly...

AL: Do you know what year she did that?

AO: Oh, lordy. Was it in '50? Somewhere around there that...

AL: I think '52 was the first year they could.

AO: Oh, well, then that's when she did it. As soon as she found out, she went to classes, and [inaudible] she took the test and did it.

AL: When did she pass away?

AO: She passed away in '58, after we moved here. We moved her, and while we were building the house, she was living with my sister (Toshi) in Fresno. And then after we moved here, she moved in with us, 'cause she'd been with my sister for a couple of years. So we thought it's time I took her, because I had a home now, instead of living in an apartment in the city. And so she moved here, (and) was enjoying herself, then she had a stroke. But she realized, neither my sister nor I told her that (I was) pregnant. But I guess she must have thought she was going to be a burden that I was expecting a baby. So she allowed herself to have a stroke and leave us. It's the way I look at it.

AL: And your parents, are they buried in Gilroy?

AO: Yes.

AL: What was the name of the cemetery?

AO: I think it's the Gavilan, they call it the Gavilan cemetery. But we have a grave there, and there's room for two more, so my two sisters, Kazue's now divorced, and so she is single, and Atsuko is single, so they've arranged that when they die, they will be buried there.

AL: One question a little bit back in time, is you talked about your friend Catherine. Did you ever reconnect with her after the war, or is she still alive?

AO: That I don't know, if she's still alive. But I heard that... I was hoping that I would see her at the class reunion that we were having, and I believe she was living in Watsonville or somewhere around there at the time. I don't think I was ever able to get in touch with her.

<End Segment 43> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.