Densho Digital Archive - Yoshino Grace Fukuhara Niwa Interview (denshovh-nyoshino-01-0012)

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AL: When did you first hear about Manzanar becoming preserved or that there might be a historic site?

YN: I don't know, probably in the Rafu Shimpo.

AL: Have you been able to see the evolution of Manzanar? I mean, you said you first went there in 1969, you were there on a pilgrimage, and then you've been there in recent pilgrimages. I'm just curious about your feeling of going there. I know I saw you last year at the pilgrimage, you were there with your younger sister Helen and your husband. That was the first time I realized that you were married to Haruko Niwa's son, so it's a very small town of ten thousand. What is it like when you go there? Your name is on the wall as a baby born in Manzanar. Your father is in the film, your father's artwork that day was on the walls, and when you think of Manzanar being a place that had over eleven thousand people, and there's... your there. What is that like for you?

YN: It's awesome. It really is. And you've done a wonderful job in what has happened, evolved there on the site from where there was just the two, the cemetery monument and the guardhouse to the tower, to the interpretive center, to the barrack, to... really a lot. And I know you have many projects more.

AL: What would you like to see at Manzanar in twenty years? I mean, how would you like... if you could be the person who's directing how that site continues to evolve, what would your vision be for Manzanar?

YN: Well, not knowing what it was like before, I know when I go to the Japanese American National Museum and I see the model that the class of '44 did, I think... I was so struck by how big it was, how many barracks it was. The school, the hospital, the orphanage, the gardens, as much as can be preserved and rebuilt.

AL: What else do you think needs to be rebuilt there? I mean, right now we have a mess hall which is not a rebuild, it's a restore of a World War II era mess hall, and then we've rebuilt the two barracks buildings. Given obviously limited funding, we're not going to be able to rebuild the whole camp, but what would you prioritize in terms of... when you come there as a visitor but also somebody who has a direct personal connection to the history, what do you think is most important to see in the future? Like we've talked about, should we build more towers, should we build the latrines, should we built the laundry room and an ironing room, or should be restoring the gardens, or should we be... there are so many things at Manzanar that one could do. What do you feel makes the biggest difference to people?

YN: Well, my husband is always impressed by the people who came to teach. And if there had not been a high school, had there not been teachers to come from outside, that he would not have been able to go on to college, and he feels that they are not recognized enough, and he knows that some of them had to meet with prejudice after they left the camps, they were not able to be employed as teachers. So possibly school.

AL: Where did he go to school from Manzanar? So he graduated in '44 and he relocated to go to a school, is that right?

YN: His parents went to Milwaukee, his mother was asked to open a hostel there, which she did, and he worked in Milwaukee and saved money. He received several scholarship offers, he was told not to try to go to any of the big universities because there was still a lot of prejudice. And one of the schools that was, one of the first schools that was welcoming these internees was Park College in Missouri, and so that's where he went. It was a Presbyterian college at that time.

AL: And what was... what did he study there?

YN: He was pre-ministerial. His father was not a minister, but there were several ministers in the family. And so my husband was to be a minister, but he loved chemistry, and he was offered this teaching assistant in chemistry. But I guess the dean of religion told him he had a church picked out for him. So I think he went home and told his father he really did not want to be a minister, he wanted to pursue chemistry. And he tells the story of how his father realized that was really what he wanted to be, and he went out and bought him a suit and a watch. He said, "You're gonna need this." But my husband did think that he should give God a chance, and so he went to [inaudible] and walked in front of the dean's office and prayed for a sign, and he said he didn't get the sign, so he said he went to chemistry.

AL: That's a great story. You know, before we realized that that was your husband, I had only known his name through his mother. And some of the quotes from his mother, we use several of her quotes in the exhibit, and obviously I've never met her, but she seemed to be a very eloquent, thoughtful, well-spoken person. What was she like?

YN: She was well-educated, and she, her English was very good. She taught Japanese school, which is why my husband can still speak Japanese. He said, "I can't shame my mother," and so he had to learn Japanese, good Japanese. And she was, because of her English, I think that was why she was asked to open this hostel, the U.S. government asked her to do that. She had a big heart, she was a good cook.

AL: And she was Issei.

YN: And she was Issei, yes.