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LP: What has being a volunteer here meant to you?

MM: Well, you really, I think we all are here because we want to get the message across to people. There are people who come through who have absolutely no idea that we were in camp, I mean, they were just amazed. There were teachers even. Now we had the Hello Kitty exhibit exiting through the Common Ground exhibit, and it's a perfect opportunity, because otherwise those people would never come. And they're just amazed that this kind of thing happened. And I've been to schools, accompanied people who give a presentation about the camp experience, and the children, some of the children, I guess the parents know about it, and they're not surprised. But there are a few, there very, very few people who know about it. So that's our goal, is to make people aware that something like this did happen, and we don't want it to happen again. There were a lot of people, younger people who maybe were not even in camp who can lecture about it, too. So I think it serves its purpose. I've never been a docent because I can't remember details of everything. But we have excellent docents who really tell the story well. So this is a great experience with the Hello Kitty exiting, and people are just astonished that something like this even happened, so then they'll come back again. So it was a good intro, because it's hard to get people to attend a museum of this type. I think we got a lot of members, new members, because of that.

LP: Kind of thinking about Park Service activities, Tule Lake Unit, we're a newer national park and we have limited capacity to do stuff because of money, but is there anything that you, if we had whatever amount of money, that you would really think would be great for us to do there, or something you absolutely feel like we should not do there? Is there anything, any input in that?

MM: Well, I think, I mean, the pilgrimage people really do a good job. And I think if you could tell the story from their vantage point, and how people were sent there because they protested, but not so much being disloyal, but protesting the fact that we were sent there, or to the camps, and they were voicing their opinions and they were incarcerated further because of that. And for even the Japanese people to hear the story, to correct their image of people who were in Tule Lake, I think that would be terrific. I don't know, do you have many artifacts?

LP: We're building a collection. We're kind of in this catch-22, I guess, but basically we have all of these things that we want to have as our collection, but we need to amp up our facility or find some arrangement that will allow us, based off of the standards, to do that. But we know the floodgates are starting to open in terms of people wanting to donate things for a variety of reasons, so it's a priority for sure.

MM: Because a lot of the people who were actually adults there are gone. I mean, I think I still have things, I used to have Japanese school books, I kept all my report cards, and I have some here, but I still, I'll make a point, whatever I have, if I have any, to save it for Tule Lake.

LP: That'd be great. Definitely archival stuff is much easier for us, too, 'cause of the space. Yeah, that would be great, we'd be definitely interested in that. Was there anything that we didn't cover or ask that you really wanted to bring up?

MM: No, I don't think so.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.