<Begin Segment 18>

AL: This is tape three of an oral history interview with Kiyo Wakatsuki, it is July 22, 2014. The interviewer is Alisa Lynch, videographer Mark Hachtmann, notes by Larisa Proulx, and Bernadette Johnson is also here. So we were just talking about, you were talking about your postwar career working for Lockheed. When were you in the military and where were you stationed?

GW: I went and volunteered for the navy in 1951, January 1951, it was during the Korean War. I didn't want to be drafted and go in the army, so I said I would volunteer to go in the navy. I spent five years, my normal term was only five years -- four years. But during my naval career I ended up in Okinawa, I was stationed there for thirteen months. I met my first wife there, I wanted to get married, and it took me eighteen months to get my paperwork through to get approval to get married. So we were married in Japan, and brought her over in 1956, and that was my naval career. And I was discharged in 1956, January of '56. I started to go to school, and I worked on the farm, the strawberry farm, during that 1956, and then went to school at (San Jose City) College while I was working. And in '57, July of '57, I got a job with Lockheed in Sunnyvale, California.

AL: What did you do there?

GW: I first went in as a draftsman, and then I worked there for thirty years. And I progressed, got my college degree and I became what you call a designer and then I became a production design expert, production design senior. And then I became a group engineer, which was like a supervisor of engineers. And then retired in 1987, March of '87. But it was during this... when I was working at Lockheed that the movie came out that they did an article on the movie and myself because I was an employee of Lockheed, Lockheed newsletter, and it was a nice article. It told about the movie and all that. So I became known on that fact because of the movie, because there's a lot of people working for Lockheed at that time, in Sunnyvale there was twenty thousand of them. It was during the 1960s where they had the Cold War going on, and we had to build this missile that would deter the Russians from attacking, so it was an important job.

AL: Did you ever have anybody react to... I've had other people say, well, "The first time I told somebody about this happening they said, 'Oh, no, that didn't happen,' 'No, we wouldn't do that.'" Did you ever have, like when that article came out, anybody doubt?

GW: No. But I had a lot of people come up to me and said they saw the movie and they read the book. They liked the book. I guess I became more well-known or famous because of the book that people read, that people were reading. And in fact, guys bring in the book, they wanted me to autograph it for them. So it was interesting.

AL: What do you think the biggest differences are between the book and the movie? Do you have a preference for one over the other?

GW: Oh, the book. I have preference over the book. The movie only because it can depict visually what life was like in camp, but in the book you can't see everything. You could picture it in your mind, but it isn't there. But in the movie, I had a bit part in it. The scene where we take this guy and beat him up when he's in the latrine, I'm one of the guys that grabs him and punch him. [Laughs]

AL: I'll have to go back and look for you.

GW: You can't see me at all, just hear me grunting.

AL: Is there any other members of your family who were in the movie?

GW: Oh, yeah, my brother-in-law Kaz was in there, he's the one that's playing the shakuhachi. They had pictures of Lillian in there, my niece Cathy was in there, my nephew Randy was a spectator in there. Quite a bit of the family.

AL: And that opening scene where they're driving their Volkswagen to the camp, is that really Jim and Jeanne and their kids?

GW: No, that isn't them, but it almost looks like them.

AL: It looks like her. That's not her?

GW: No, that wasn't Jeanne or her kids.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.