<Begin Segment 19>

RP: We were talking about some of your experiences in Carbondale.

GK: Oh, in Carbondale, oh, yes. My mother-in-law would send us back with a hundred pounds of rice. At that time, they were hundred-pound rice sacks, and our children would not let Frank unload that until after dark, always. [Laughs] And they, that was, thinking back on that, people used to ask me if I ate a lot of rice, and people would say, "Your eyes are round, they're not squinty." But most of all, they asked me if I liked this country, if I liked America. And I would explain to them that I was born in America so I was an American, and they'd say, "No wonder you speak the English language so well." Well, after a while, after being asked so many times if I liked this country, I finally said, "I love America, I love America." And so I always felt like I was an ambassador, you know. [Laughs] I used to always think that way, that I was an ambassador. But I think it does work, because when you're a foreigner to people that never have been around Asians, then you are, you are an ambassador.

RP: An ambassador and an educator.

GK: Yeah. So I used to always tell my children, even though they were Americans, they had to really watch themselves. And I hated to tell them because of the way they looked, that they were different. But at one point, I did have to stress to my youngest daughter that she was different, and this was at a church. And she had gone with some friends to church, and apparently did things that were not, you know, like clapping after the minister gave a sermon and singing a hymn which she didn't know, she and her friend. So when she came home, my oldest daughter said that Laura had misbehaved, and so I thought maybe I needed to tell her that even though she was an American, she was, she looked different, so she needed to behave herself. And this was of course after church, so she said to me, "That's all right, Mom, I'll wear a mask next time." [Laughs] So even though I didn't want to stress the fact that they were different, they were different. So they were always on, also always on, on whatever.

RP: You were on, kind of, alert and very... you were talking about that experience after, after the man, or the boy in your class, that you felt sort of on edge.

GK: Uh-huh. So you know, I always felt like we're, if we do anything, it was always if it's, if it's anything bad, it was always a reflection on our race.

RP: Right, no matter what, not bringing shame.

GK: So that was always, you never wanted to shame your parents or disgrace them.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.