<Begin Segment 33>

KL: Do you guys have children?

ST: Yeah, two.

KL: Do you, either of you, have you talked to your kids about your World War II experiences at all?

ST: Not really.

KL: Have they asked you really, or do they know about it?

MS: Our son did when he was in high school, because he had to write a report for his history class. And he interviewed us and wrote his report, and I guess... I think I have his report somewhere, but it was kind of interesting because I saw the report, and the teacher had written a note on the top, "See me." And apparently she was shocked to find out, because he didn't have his reference information as to where he got his information. And she asked him where he got all this information, and he says, "From my parents. I interviewed them." So that was when I first found out that there was no written history anywhere about what happened. So he was the one that kind of started it with us. I go, "What do you mean there's nothing written anywhere?"

KL: Yeah, what was his reaction to hearing your stories?

MS: He kind of heard us talk. He knew how we met and everything, so he kind of knew. He had kind of an inkling, and we didn't talk to him in detail, but he knew that we had been in camps and stuff like that. So it was not too long after that that all the redress stuff came up. And the first young man that talked to us about it, I was kind of surprised, like, "What do you care? It wasn't you that it happened to." Like it was something that happened to us, not to you. But he was kind of indignant that it happened. And from there, it really started to snowball.

KL: Who was "he"? Who was that young man?

MS: It was just a friend of someone that we knew. We had gone out for the evening, and this other couple came and he was one of the other couples. And he was apparently very much involved with the movement at that time.

KL: With redress?

MS: Yeah. And that was very early.

KL: Why did he tell you he was interested in redress? You said you were surprised because he was not Japanese American.

MS: No, he was Japanese American, but then he was, he was much younger. I think he might have been born in camp, so he didn't really have any background on it. He was very indignant about it all, and that was when we found out that they were starting to make waves about what had happened.

KL: Do you remember his name?

MS: No, I don't. I don't.

KL: What did you think of the redress movement?

ST: Not much. [Laughs]

MS: Our generation didn't have much to say, we kind of just... but it really was the younger generation that made all the noise about it and brought it out.

KL: When you got the letter with the presidential apology or the check, what did you think?

MS: I thought too bad, it was... it was our parents that really should have gotten it.

ST: Oh, yeah.

MS: Because they lost everything.

KL: Sat, did you think the same? What were your thoughts when you got those things in the mail?

ST: The what?

KL: When you got the letter and stuff in the mail, what were your thoughts?

ST: About the apology? [Laughs] Well, it happened. Don't think much of anything.

MS: It's like we can't do anything about it. It happened.

<End Segment 33> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.