<Begin Segment 21>
RP: I wanted to get your opinions and feelings about the redress, the apology that the government issued, and a payment of twenty thousand dollars. What was your feeling...
DI: I was, I was surprised, you know, that the government would do that. Of course, it was a big mistake, but nevertheless, to see twenty thousand, that's a lot of money. I mean, you think of all the people that they had to pay the twenty thousand to. I don't know where ours went, but I know we got it. [Laughs]
RP: So you didn't expect to ever see an apology?
DI: No, I was surprised, yeah. But then I think, like I said, when his two buddies were, lost their lives, you just can't compare that with just getting money from the government.
RP: And what did, what did both you and Tom lose? Did you... when you were evacuated, when you had to leave the Sawtelle area, did he have a business? Wasn't he working at a service station or...
DI: No, he had his own business.
RP: Right.
DI: Yeah. He had the corner there, right at Olympic and Corinth.
RP: Corinth, right.
DI: He had a signal gas station there.
RP: Right. And did he lose that?
DI: Pardon? Yeah, he lost it because he couldn't pay the hundred dollar a month rent. Huh?
RP: The payment, the monthly payment? Right. And that was the result of having to leave. You didn't have the money.
DI: There were also people who owed him money that couldn't pay it.
RP: So you didn't have the money to pay it. How about the house that you were living in?
DI: Oh, we were just renting.
RP: You just rented it.
DI: Uh-huh.
RP: Did you have personal belongings that you had to store?
DI: Yeah, luckily his mother and dad had a house at 1944 Colby, so we took all our things over there and put 'em in the garage of his family friends. And then he bolted it, and he told the renters, "Whatever you do, do not open this garage." Because it's not just our belongings, but belongs to other families. But he also had a friend of his that he grew up with that lived on Colby, right near Olympic, Johnny Sprague, he drove by there one day and the doors were wide open, he all the stuff out in the garage. And he came to visit us up in Manzanar. And he said he that he had the place wide open. And then he, I can't remember, I know you had some swords there you hid somewhere. [Addressing husband] Were they there? Were they gone?
RP: Swords?
DI: Yeah, he had some Japanese swords.
RP: Samurai? Money? Oh, a coin collection.
DI: See, he -- oh, he doesn't have the swords up there. He had a couple swords up there before.
RP: Oh, that he stored under the house?
DI: Those he bought probably afterwards.
RP: Everything was gone.
DI: He's always been interested in Japanese artifacts.
RP: Kirk, do you have any further questions? Okay, Dorothy, do you have any other stories that you'd like to share with us about your, Reno, Manzanar, Sawtelle experiences?
DI: Oh, you know, I just, at this age, I just can't think of too many things. [Laughs] It's hard enough worrying about three meals a day, what to cook.
RP: Okay, thank you for your time.
<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.