<Begin Segment 13>

RP: Gladys, I wanted to share, have you share a few stories about the wartime in Colorado. First of all, let's talk about the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed. Do you recall...

GK: Yes, I do recall. When it first came on the radio, I think we thought it was a program. And we used to listen to the radio a lot, and when they said the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, I think it was with disbelief. And you know, you have so much emotion because you're American but you are also Japanese. And to think that the Japanese would do something like that, it's just like, "How could they do that?" So you're, you know, you're thinking, "Okay, I'm American," but do you have any loyalties to Japan, only because you're Japanese. And you're ashamed that they did it. So you, I think you realize that you're ashamed of them, so you must be American. And there's just a lot of emotion and dreading to go back to school.

RP: What was that like when you went back to school the first days after the attack on Pearl Harbor?

GK: I don't, you know, that part, I think most people were very, must have been polite. I don't remember any derogatory remarks made by them. So I think it was okay. I think I was holding my breath all the time, though, just wondering how the people felt about me, because most of the students that I were with started from the first grade, so I'm not sure that they even thought anything of it, but I was just always afraid that they might realize that I was Japanese. So I, at that point, and that's when my classmate made that remark, I think that really changed my life as far as who I was for a long time. And even though the group that I was, in class, I had journalism, and we did a lot of running to the publishers in town, so we would walk from the school to the publishing office in Fort Lupton Press. And I always felt like one of them, but whenever there were any social gatherings, then I felt like I was not part of that.

RP: Were not included.

GK: Not included, yeah. So yeah, I just always felt like -- they might have included me, but I wasn't forward enough to...

RP: Project yourself.

GK: Yeah, that maybe I could have been with them, I don't know. I never said anything, I just always felt like I needed to be in the background. All through high school, I think I -- and pretty much into my adult years, I think I always felt like I wasn't...

RP: Good enough?

GK: Good enough, yeah. Good enough. So I think at my later years, I think I'm starting to bloom. [Laughs]

RP: No time like the present.

GK: Yeah, I guess so.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.