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KL: This is Kristen Luetkemeier back for tape three of an oral history interview with Marion Masada, on September 10th, 2014. And we had to cut off kind of abruptly on tape two because of time, but you were going to tell us something further about your being able to speak or...

MM: Two more experiences that affected my life profoundly like that one. And this was when I was married -- no, no, I was single. Excuse me, this was just before I got married, so I was about twenty-two, I think, twenty-two years old. I got married at twenty-three, so this was when I was twenty-two. I needed to find a supplemental job to supplement my income, rather, and so I went to an interview with Milton Mann Photography Studio in San Francisco. I was living in San Francisco at the time. And so he wanted me to do telephone solicitation, and so he says, "I want you to do one now." And so I said, "This is Miss Nakamura, we have a special for you," and blah, blah, blah, and I said it enthusiastically, and when I hung up he said, "Your name sounds too foreign, so I want you to use a Caucasian name." And so I hung up the phone and I dialed again, pretend, and I said, "This is Miss Grant, we have a special for you," and blah, blah, blah. By the time I finished I was seething with anger. I was so mad. I had no words to tell him how I felt, and I grabbed my purse and I glared at him and I left. And I wished I could've said something to him, but I didn't.

And then the second one was, I was married and I went for a part-time job at the nearby school where I lived in Stockton, and so I went to hire for a community aide, working with parents. I was to work with parents. I know how to work with parents. To bring 'em into the school and help their child, that's my job description. And so one day the principal, Mr. Potter, said to me, "I want you to do the secretary's job, too." And by now I'm smart. I know my job description, so I told him, "That's not in my job description," and he says to me, "You do it because I tell you to do it and the superintendent of schools told me to tell you to do it." And I said, "You know, isn't that funny?" I mean, I'm saying to myself, "Isn't that funny? I'm just a three-hour day job and they think I'm a miracle worker." So I headed for, I said, "Thank you," and I left and I headed for that superintendent's office. He happened to be in and I saw him right away, and I said, "How come you didn't tell me I was to do the secretary's job, too, when I'm only a community aide, three hour a day job?" He got on that phone, he dialed Mr. Potter and he said, "Don't you dare do that again," and he banged on the phone. And you know, I felt different. For the first time in my life, I felt like there was power that was asleep down there and it just came out, and I was free. That's how powerful that moment was for me, if I could describe it. That's how it felt. It was a powerful, one of the most powerful moments in my life, and I said, "Boy, that's a good feeling. I've never had one like that. So powerful." And so it told me something, but at the same time it scared me. [Laughs] That I, you got to speak up for justice.

KL: Why did it scare you?

MM: Because I'd never done it. I've always taken it, you know what I mean? That's the Japanese culture. You take it, you don't fight back, you don't cause waves. You can't imagine how difficult it is, you just can't imagine. I'm verbal, I'm very verbal, but not outside of my comfort zone, and that's where it's hard and that's where it's going to count. And I've got to, I've got to be brave enough to do that. You have to have guts to do that, and it is hard, very hard. Unless I know what I'm really talking about -- like going to the schools and speaking like this, I know what I'm talking about. I'm in charge of my own history, so I can tell it because it happened, these things happened. And I could do that, so that's my way of telling truth, sharing truth with people and telling them about that experience of it, power coming back. I got my power back, that's what I tell the students. I said, "I got my power back," and I sit down and I leave it at that, let them think about it. That's where I end my story.

KL: When did the telephone... you said it, you were twenty-two?

MM: Yeah.

KL: So that was nineteen...

MM: '55.

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