<Begin Segment 23>

ST: Was there anything else you had?

RP: Couple more questions just about in the 1980s there was an effort to obtain an apology from the government for putting Japanese Americans in camps like Manzanar, the redress. And the JACL supported that effort. Was Roy heavily involved in...

ST: Yeah, he was involved at the very beginning, he was.

RP: Was he?

ST: He was. He went, I think, different areas to talk to them about it. Yes. Because that was his job at the time. So, he was quite active in JACL for a while and then after a while, as you grow older...

RP: Did Roy have hobbies or other interests?

ST: I think, well, he liked to smoke which... but I think he liked to write. He, I think he had a book in mind. But I don't think he ever...

RP: He never actually started writing?

ST: No.

RP: Did you, did he give you any idea of what that book would have been about?

ST: No. I never asked. Book or something, he wanted to write. But, he, he never was able to do it. Yeah, he was what, eighty-four? I think if he had a few more years he probably would have done it.

RP: Both you and Roy received an apology letter from the President in 1988 or '90?

ST: Oh, like everybody else? Yes. I think we all did.

RP: And a, and a...

ST: I don't know if, I don't know where it is. But I know I have it somewhere.

RP: And there was a check too, reparations.

ST: Yes, uh-huh.

RP: $20,000.

ST: Wasn't that what, $20,000?

RP: Did you have any, did that trigger any feelings or thoughts on your mind about your experience during the war? Did you feel that that was something that was owed you, an apology?

ST: Well, I wouldn't say owed me, but I appreciated it. And it was a helpful thing for all of us. I think a lot of people lost a lot of money at the time.

RP: Including your dad.

ST: Uh-huh. During the evacuation. And, oh, I think we all appreciated that. We didn't expect it. And I think it helped us. So, and I think we were trying to educate her, too. [Indicating daughter] And that helped us, too.

RP: Oh, the money that was... so you see, sounds like you see your camp experience in a very positive light. That it was --

ST: Uh-huh.

RP: -- you were able to become...

ST: When you put it all together, for me, it was a good thing for us. I didn't want to live the farm. It gave me opportunity to do something a little easier. I think that's the main thing. And I think it was the same thing for my father, too, because he, he really enjoyed having to, having the chance to go fishing whenever he liked. And he said that he was very, he has no regrets about losing the farm or anything. He doesn't even think about the $400 that somebody would have offered, $40,000.

RP: Forty thousand.

ST: After the war, it was four hundred thousand. But he said, "I don't even think about it."

RP: Well, Sumi, we want to thank you very much for --

ST: Oh, thank you.

RP: -- giving us this opportunity --

ST: I don't know if it helped you any, but --

RP: -- to share some stories.

ST: -- it was interesting talking to you.

RP: Yes.

ST: I hope you can make something out of it.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.