<Begin Segment 15>

JA: What were your feelings when you, when the government offered redress for this and the President issued an apology? How did you feel about that?

HF: Well, I thought it was... I thought it was coming to us, but I didn't think there was, I, I never thought that it was enough. I never thought -- and I don't, I don't know what would have been enough, but I think the $20,000 was nothing. When that check came, my wife was... what was my wife doing, anyways? I think she had a gallbladder operation or something, and she says, "Take your check and go get a car," so I bought a new car with my check. But I don't know, I never had any great happiness from that money. I don't know of anybody that said, "Gee, that's great," or, "It's a lot of money we got." It was nice that we received the money, and I... I fully appreciate all the effort that, the people that put into getting that redress money. There's a lot of lobbying went on to do that. They just didn't hand the money to you if you said, "Give us the money." You know, they didn't just come across with that money right away, it took a long time.

JA: So why do you feel it wasn't enough?

HF: Well, for what, for what you lost and what you went through? What you went through is something that you can't put a, put a dollar figure on, but what you lost you could. And if you were, if you were just a family person and if you were a gardener, for instance, I'd say, if you were just a gardener, you didn't have very much to lose. But if you were in any kind of business, you lost a lot; a big amount of money. So $20,000 nowhere near touches it, touches what we lost in dollars. And then as far as the feeling part of it, you can't put a, you can't put a dollar sign on the feeling, but you can put a dollar sign on what you lost.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2002 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.