<Begin Segment 22>

RM: So let's, I guess, let's roll back in time a little bit to the pilgrimages starting in 1969. When did you first learn about the Manzanar pilgrimages?

PS: You know, I got married when I was twenty-two... I'll bet you I must have known by then, because I asked my husband then -- I was married then -- "Let's stop at Manzanar," but we couldn't find it. [Laughs] I mean, there was very little there, because I was twenty-two, so that's got to be almost fifty years ago. There was very little there, there was a little bit of the gymnasium, right? But I couldn't find the... 'cause I didn't know it was in another mile, and I think it had barbed wire across it, so you weren't supposed to go, I think it said "no trespassing." So I said, well, I don't know where it is. Other than we could see that building, the entrance, and I think that was it. I said, "I guess there's nothing to see."

RM: When did you start asking your mom about camp and about her experiences? Was it at the same time?

PS: No, it was a lot later. Probably not until I was in my forties did I ever ask her anything. Because she didn't want to tell me anyway, even in my forties she never answered me. And I don't know how long she was going to the pilgrimages with Sueko, but I know she was going quite a while with her. But I never see her in those pictures, the early pictures. And my mom, obviously, couldn't tell me when she started going.

RM: Why do you think your mom was unwilling to talk about camp but willing to go to the pilgrimages?

PS: I don't know. I'd ask her, "Mom, why do we have to go?" "We have to go." Because I know why I didn't go for a long time, I used to run a marathon in Big Sur, and it was on that same weekend.

RM: That's the best marathon, yes.

PS: So I could never go to the pilgrimage because I was at that all the time. And then I had to stop doing that.

RM: So you stopped doing the Big Sur Marathon and then you came to the pilgrimages. Your mom had been going for a long time, you then joined her at the request of Sue, what year was that?

PS: That I don't remember.

RM: Okay, and that was in the early 2000s, though, you were thinking?

PS: Yeah, I think so. I have one t-shirt that I made, that I made my sister come with. I can look at it because I put the date on it.

RM: So I feel like I've skipped over a lot of your life. Would you like to fill that in? You said you got married when you were twenty-two.

PS: Well, we don't need... I mean, I was a flower child, did that whole thing, went to a lot of concerts, I marched during the Vietnam War. I mean, I was like your normal kid, I was a beatnik for a while.

RM: Did you, during the Civil Rights Movement, and then Vietnam War, did you know during those times about the injustices during World War II against Japanese Americans?

PS: I think I did by then. I think mainly because of the 442nd, you heard about the 442nd, and they had to have their own battalion.

RM: Did you... I guess I'm curious --

PS: I thought most of 'em were all Hawaiian, though, but I guess if you were Japanese you could join that.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.