<Begin Segment 11>

JA: Did you know people who served in the 442nd?

GI: Well, I know there was a couple of our classmates -- not my classmates -- but there were, that graduated before I did, they were killed in the war. They were good -- they were all... well, they were all good people that were killed. So I don't know what else to say about that.

JA: But they were proud to serve, obviously?

GI: Oh, yes, they were all proud to serve. You know, that's, that's the trouble with these radical people, they don't seem to understand that. If it wasn't for that -- if it wasn't for all these Japanese Americans in the 442, I mean, where would the Japanese American community be today, I mean all the people? I mean, they should be thankful that everything did turn out well, as well as it did. We wouldn't have these Japanese American congressmen and they're, I think they're the worst ones to complain about the darn evacuation. And yet they're sitting on the doggone desk behind in the Capitol or wherever, and, and where would they be if it wasn't for the war? We wouldn't be nowhere, unless a person gets himself involved with what he, what he wants to succeed in and do it. And I'm sure that one of, even the congressmen are complaining about when he was a baby, well, I don't even remember, remember being a baby, I mean, the things that happened when I was a baby. It's pretty hard to try to remember. That's why it sort of tickles me when I hear these things and even in, even in a book like Farewell to Manzanar, you know, there's... that, that book is given to all the people, I mean, all the schoolkids in school, and it doesn't, it doesn't really tell the real truth about her, her story, because she was just a young kid then, going, when she was in camp. How can she remember all those little details? It's questionable in my mind because I can't remember a lot of little things and, when I was growing up and even in camp.

JA: You remember a lot, I could tell. [Laughs]

GI: No, I can remember... [laughs].

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2002 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.