Densho Digital Archive - George Oda Interview (denshovh-ogeorge-01-0025)

<Begin Segment 25>

WP: I was just wondering about your general feelings about redress.

RM: So Whitney Peterson, who is note taker, just brought up redress. And I'm curious about how, what you thought when the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 was passed and everyone got an apology from the government and $20,000 reparations.

GO: Well, that $20,000 was too late, that's one thing. Because all the older generation that really needed it passed away. But I used it. Yeah, that was the only thing that was bad about that.

RM: What did you do, if you don't mind my asking, what did you do with it?

GO: We paid some bills, I guess, because we had kids and all that. It helped.

RM: So what year did your parents, each of them, pass away?

GO: My dad passed away when he was seventy-two, and that was a long time ago. I don't know exactly what year, I won't know.

RM: What about your mom?

GO: My mom, she passed away when the kids were small yet. That... I don't know where she was.

RM: Did they ever talk about Manzanar with you?

GO: You know, the first generation, they don't talk about Manzanar, so their kids didn't know nothing about it. They know a little bit about it but some of 'em don't know too much about it. But me, I think I talked too much to my kids, so they know. And then like this... lot of these, they don't talk to their kids about it.

RM: It sounded like what you were saying earlier, that in North Hollywood, you were saying that the guys who went to Tule Lake were talking about Tule Lake and you guys were talking about Manzanar. I was surprised to hear how much it sounded like you were talking about the camp experience. Do you think that your community was a little different than other communities?

GO: No, no, it's just a talker, what happened. Just like you take a trip and see what happened over there. So it's good friends talking about what they did. It's nothing different.

RM: So I guess, George, our last question for you, because you've been so involved in all these reunions, you've been paying attention to what's going on at Manzanar and we even have a picture of you in our exhibits watching that car go away while everyone's packed up with their suitcases, I'd like to know what you would like to see us do at Manzanar as we progress into the future. What kind of changes do you think are important and what kind of things we should be doing.

GO: No, what you have now is good. But like who was that talking about building a latrine and all that, that should go up. Then that would make it, what really worked is... I don't know if they will really have the potties in there or not, but just the building would do it. That was something.

RM: Is there anything that you wanted to tell me about all of your life experiences that I forgot to ask you about?

GO: No, life is good. [Laughs] Life is good and getting shorter.

RM: You know one thing maybe we should record is how this oral history came about. Just to get it on record, I believe it was at the last Manzanar pilgrimage in April of 2014. Could you just tell exactly what it, how you agreed to do an oral history?

GO: Yeah, I was gonna save somebody's job. [Laughs] If I didn't take this oral, somebody was gonna get fired.

RM: What person was that gonna be?

GO: So I figured, well, I want her to get fired, so I agreed to do this interview. So she's interviewing me.

RM: Well, George, on behalf of me, so that I don't have to lose my job, and on behalf of Manzanar National Historic Site and Alisa Lynch who's not here in the room with us but who strongly encouraged you to do an interview, I want to say thank you so, so, so much. I know that you've talked probably about three hours longer than you intended to talk, and now we'll let you go back to having fun at the reunion. George, it was a real joy to talk to you today, so thank you so much.