<Begin Segment 21>

KL: I wanted to ask you sort of about some big events in Manzanar's more recent history, too, since you were here locally for them. Starting off with the historic marker that was placed in 1973 and the state marker, do you have a recollection or were you involved at all in that?

KP: No, but I had friends that went out there to the monument behind Manzanar a number of years ago and they got stuck in the sand out there. [Laughs]

KL: Oh, really? Were they on their own?

KP: Yeah, they were on their own. They had to walk up to here (to the then Garage) to get a phone, to (my husband) Raymond to come and get 'em out, and they were stuck back there.

KL: Were they local people?

KP: No, they were from Imperial Valley. But I've been very pleased that they're having the Return to Manzanar every year. I think that's a really good idea, it's a good thing. I wanted to be on the original Manzanar Committee before the museum went in, but then I realized there was going to be a lot of objection by military people, and I just wasn't up to that. I wanted to be, having been to Hiroshima, I wanted it to be a Peace Park. I wanted it to be called the Manzanar Peace Park, and I thought that would have been a really good idea, but it's worked out. I knew it would work out sooner or later, somehow or other it would work out, because it was meant to be, needed to happen.

KL: What do you think it has done... you said it needed to be, it was meant to happen. How do you think the establishment of a public site here has affected people's thinking or affected the area?

KP: Well, all I know is every time I go by here, there's ten or fifteen cars here. So people are interested. They're interested in that side of California history, or U.S. history. It's part of U.S. history and it needs to be remembered. I think it needs to be remembered. And I've been impressed that so many people were wanting to see it and wanting to come here. And as I said, in my opinion, it's very well done.

[Interruption]

KL: Looking out, you know, say twenty, thirty years into the future, what would you like to, how would you like to see Manzanar continue to develop?

KP: Well, I'd like to see some of the gardens totally restored, or at least one as a sample garden, because it was so beautiful. And I know it's a big job to maintain it and so forth, but you already have the rocks and the spillways, and the place for the waterfall, several places on the north side, I know you already do. I'd like to see that happen, and I'm so thrilled that they're restoring some of the orchards and selling the seeds, because they are drought-resistant. And then I don't know about the garden, the other gardens that they raised here, whether there'd be any value in that at all. But I think it's fairly well-done the way it is. And also restoring the barracks, I've been in the barracks that they have restored, and I think they've done a really good job on that, and that was important to do, because you really have the feeling that you're right there with the people that were actually in there, eating in there with those photos, those photo montages that are in there. They're great; I was very impressed with those. Yeah, I've taken a lot of people around.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.