<Begin Segment 22>

KL: Another sort of commemorative or reflective thing you were telling me about earlier was a reenactment of one of the Korematsu trials?

GM: Oh, that one was through a series of coincidences. The inaugural reenactment case that the Riverside Appeals Court presented was the Fred Korematsu case where (...) he defied the executive order to evacuate and he hid out and was put in prison, went to the Supreme Court, and they found him guilty. And in 1983, just a quick recall, some lawyers talked him into reopening the case and so they reopened the case in 1983 and they reversed the decision from Guilty to Not Guilty. And in 2003 or '4, President Clinton awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian medal you can get. Anyway, the Riverside Appeals Court decided to make this their inaugural presentation, and you had to have reservations through this newspaper, so I called. And I've become very good friends with Paula Garcia, the county clerk, or the court clerk. She said something like, "Oh, you must have been too young," or said something, "Your last name, is it a Japanese last name?" "Yes." "But you must have been too young to have known anything about this." And I said something like, "I beg your pardon? In fact, I'm ninety years old. And I'll tell you what, I've just written a bio, it's not a formal bio maybe, for my kids. I'll send you a copy of that, that'll answer some questions." So I sent her this -- I'm trying to make the story short -- but somehow she gave it to the presiding justice, Manuel Ramirez, who read it and asked if he could meet me. So within a week I went over to meet him and he took me through a tour of the whole court system, met every justice there. And how ignorant I was at the time, I didn't know who to call a judge, who to call a justice, I mean, that's now little I knew. But he went through the room where they make decisions and all this, and towards the end, he turned around and he said, "Would you do us the honor of being one of the speakers at this reenactment?" And I said, "Oh, I'd be honored, except mine won't be formal." I said, "I'll make it something like the way I wrote it." He said, "That's exactly what I want." So that's how I became one of the speakers.

KL: Who else spoke or what else do you remember?

GM: Well, Karen Korematsu was the featured speaker. (Also a) Superior Court Judge (...), I've got the name in my notes, but he was a year younger than me. He went to Poston, Arizona, he was the second speaker and I was the third. And we all had a different approach, and of course, Karen's was her life story, of she didn't know anything about what happened to her father until she heard it (...) in high school.

KL: I'd forgotten that.

GM: Yeah. And one of the students gave a report on Fred Korematsu, and she said, "Oh, this is a familiar last name," found out that it was her father. And it was quite a speech, and I believe this might have been her first speech, (to) talk about her father, I think. This was in 2009. And then this judge whose name I don't remember from San Bernardino, a Superior Court judge, he's sort of serious, he told the story about meeting his then present wife in camp, and I think he went to Poston, and he was a year younger than me. And Karen wasn't born when all this happened, by the way. But this judge's talk was real meaningful because he was there. Then I got up and mine was kind of informal, and I guess it went over pretty well. But we were the three speakers. And I didn't think that much of it until I was sent (an) Appellate California Supreme Court Appellate book 175. And I turn over the page and here's my picture and my speech and everything else in it. So I was telling you before that both my sons don't seem to really have that much interest in it, and I asked the justice if I could buy two more books and he wouldn't charge me, sent me two more books. I sent them, took it over to my sons and I said, "Here, I want you to read this by your famous dad," half kidding. I don't know if they read it to this day, but that's how I got involved in it.

And I told you the second presentation they had was of Rosa Parks, so we were able to sit in the front row next to her relatives, and it was quite an honor to just be remembered to invite us, my wife and I over. But anyway, that's how I got involved in it.

KL: That's really neat that the court does that.

GM: I know. Well, they had... it was probably before you got to Manzanar, but Maggie remembered the justice, well, they took various trips up there and interviewed people. You know, there's an artist there that passed away a few years ago.

KL: Henry Fukuhara?

GM: Yes, he was alive in 2009, and he was at a convalescent home nearby. So the justice went to visit him and had it arranged where he came to the presentation. And another member of the 442nd unit, he might have been a Medal of Honor winner, he was there. Could I talk about the 442nd unit for a minute? It was the 442nd unit of the 100th Battalion that when the government opened up the draft or volunteers -- these were all volunteers out of camps and from Hawaii -- they formed the 442nd group. And naturally they weren't able to fight in Japan, so they sent them to Germany. And they were awarded the most medals of any group in the history of the military, I guess. But one of the fiercest battles they were in was the Battle of the Lost Battalion, where a battalion was trapped between the enemy lines, and they were picked to save this battalion. So I don't know, I'll just pick some numbers, they saved eighteen people, but in doing so, they lost fifty, sixty lives doing this. But anyway, they saved the battalion. And this became famous; in fact, there was a movie about it where Van Johnson starred in it, and I remember seeing this years ago. But the reason I'm telling the story is I went to the Santa Monica... what's that place where they have the Holocaust...

KL: Oh, the Museum of Tolerance?

GM: Museum of Tolerance, yes. And I walked in there, and this is a few years back, and this elderly gentleman walks up to me and he says, "Are you Japanese?" And I said, "Yes." I might choke a little bit on this. And he said, "May I shake your hand?" "Sure," and I extended it. And he looked at me and he said, "I was a member of the Lost Battalion." I said, "You know, I was only nine years old, I didn't know that much about it." And I'm telling him, "You're thanking the wrong person." He said, "I don't care," and he wouldn't let go of my hand. And I just choked up. Finally he let go and he said, "Thank you," and he walked away. But he was a member of the Lost Battalion the 442nd unit saved. God, I'll never forget that. Just a cold chill just ran through me. Anyway, that's a true story. I think that's in my bio also.

KL: It's amazing, decades later.

GM: Yeah. Well, thinking back in his shoes...

KL: He wouldn't be here.

GM: That's right. And anybody that looked Japanese, he was thankful for, so he picked me. I didn't feel I deserved it, but I didn't argue with him.

KL: Yeah, that was a gift to him, I think, to be able to thank someone.

GM: That's quite a place to visit, the Museum of Tolerance.

KL: I'd like to go, I've heard about it from some of my colleagues, but I haven't been there yet. I'm slowly making my way to the...

GM: There's one in Palm Springs, a museum, what's the name of the African American pilots?

KL: Oh, Tuskegee Airmen?

GM: Yes.

KL: In Palm Springs?

GM: Yes, right off the 10. We went to see that also. But there was quite a few of 'em, if you look it up.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.