<Begin Segment 24>

KL: This is my last big question and it kind of ties into what you were just saying. And the question is why is it important to you to get the story out and awaken people's awareness?

WI: Well, you know, I woke up one morning and said, "Hey, I'm going to be eighty next year." Habitually, every morning, when I read the Times, I go right to the obituary to see if I've lost any friends. And I'm amazed at how many Japanese surnames that's listed, and then I see their ages, and they're in their eighties and nineties. And it will say, "Veteran of the 442," or, "Went to Manzanar camp during the war," and whatever. And for the population that now exists for Japanese Americans, it's very small. Because we don't have any immigrants, and the Japanese tend to intermarry more than the Chinese or the Vietnamese or some of the other Asian groups. So our kids are all hapas and all that. So in a few years, our generation of Japanese Americans that experienced World War II and shortly thereafter will all be pretty much gone. The Japanese that are coming here today, they're students. They go to UCLA, they get their degree, and they go back. Maybe a young businessman will come here to overlook things at our Honda plant in Torrance, and then when his term is over, he'll go back. But there is no longer a big influx of families moving here. And so I could see where whatever vestige of time that's left, will want to grapple to make the most of it, tell the stories.

KL: The last question is a short one. It's what happened to your Dopey bank? Oh, wait, don't get up, we'll look at it later. But you still have it, huh?

WI: As a matter of fact --

KL: I see it. Oh, great.

WI: As a matter of fact, I always carry it when I make my presentation, because that's sort of the focal point of my presentation. And so in Kimiko, it's not a Dopey bank, but it's a little china doll, because Kimiko's best friend, she's a Chinese girl that they met when they both lived in Chinatown. But it's like two Asian culture that's so different, language-wise, the cuisine, the customs. So that's a story I also wanted to tell. So the little Dopey bank in Kimiko is a little china doll that Mei Ling gives to Kimiko, and Kimiko carries it to camp, and it's sitting in camp, and then comes home from camp and ends up back on the same dresser, that one.

KL: Was it in Tanforan and Topaz with you?

WI: No.

KL: It was waiting.

WI: Mine was where, when I left, it was like the last thing I looked at, sitting on my dresser. And then I figured I'd go to camp, and then you come back and things would be all gone like a lot of my comic books are already. Because Chuck had a daughter about my age, so she played with a lot of my toys. But that survived.

KL: That's great.

WI: And that's the only actual toy that I was given. The rest of it were all purchased later as a collectible.

[Interruption]

KL: That's the end of my questions, and I'm really happy with how it's gone, but I wondered if there were things that you wanted to share, expected to share, that I didn't touch on.

WI: Well, I guess basically what I discussed was pretty much it. I would hope to eventually see all of our camps have like an interpretive center, museum, or some focal point where survivors, which would be far and few between, historians, writers and all to be able to visit and say, "Oh, my gosh, this is all part of history." And I think the fact that Manzanar is really up and running now, and same with our...

KL: What's going on at Topaz to that regard?

[Interruption]

WI: The museum is really rolling along. I know there's a lot of funds that Topaz will still have to raise to do a lot of finishing on the inside and get the displays up, and their target date is September of 2014, and I hope to be able to be part of the opening ceremony. When I went to Topaz for the groundbreaking, I was gonna do my presentation by doing my chalk talk and giving my talk and all that. Somehow the time got... well, it was sort of, I wouldn't say disorganized, but it was like boom, boom, boom. And then the next thing you know, they were calling the people to the buses to go out to the site and all that. So I never really got a chance to do it. So that night, the committee had a little barbeque in the backyard, and then so Jane says, "Would you be able to do your presentation for us?" I said, "Okay, let me have another beer," and whatever, and it got darker and darker, next thing you know it's too dark to do it. So I said, "Jane, the next time I see you, I promise I'll do it." So it was two weeks ago at Topaz when I could get away, so I missed it again. So I told Jane, "Well, hopefully September I'll get out there and do it," so we'll see.

KL: Would you tell us a little bit about Jane Beckwith? She's an important figure, but I don't know that we have any recordings of her.

WI: Okay, Jane, as far as I know, she's from Delta, Utah. She's a schoolteacher there. And her father printed the local newspaper. So one of the camp internees was sort of hired by Jane's father to work at the press and newspaper itself. So I don't really have all the detailed information about that, but through the years, being a permanent resident of Delta, she's gotten to know a lot of the people that has visited, and got to know a lot of the people that are instrumental in getting this project off the ground. And Jane, of course, is really the one that's troubleshooting. What else? I don't... see, a few years ago, Shig was in San Francisco for, it was a Heart Mountain committee meeting that Jane attended. And so Shig was talking to Jane and Shig mentioned that we were partners, and so Jane asked whether I would be interested. But at that time -- I have to be honest -- I was not really that motivated with the camp movement and all that. Although I was younger, I still had that attitude like a lot of the olders, "I don't want to really talk about it." I don't even really remember half of what went on. You just tend to sort of block it out. So that was too early in the stage before I started to get interested enough. So I told Shig, "Okay, yeah, I'll be in touch with Jane," but never really got around to doing it until this last year when they had that groundbreaking. I literally had to have my arms twisted by another friend of mine in San Francisco. He took the bull by the horn and he made the reservation and hotel reservation and all I had to do was make arrangements to fly to Salt Lake City, met him at the airport, he rented the car, he drove and did the whole bit. But once I got there, I really got motivated. So now I feel more compelled to want to continue.

KL: That's great. I didn't know that about her dad's connection to the story.

WI: Yeah, yeah. I'm going to have to read a little more about that phase of it, but that's Jane's connection with Topaz and the internees goes back. Jane's younger, so she wasn't there during that time, but her father has all these stories.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.