<Begin Segment 28>

RP: And did all of you go to college, did you attend college?

KT: I attended college but I didn't...

AF: I didn't graduate but I've been to college.

NN: You went to USC in nursing, too?

AF: Well, just dabbled, but I haven't got any degree.

KT: That's why I made sure that my kids did.

AF: Yeah, all your kids.

KT: I really made sure that they finished school, 'cause I didn't.

AF: My kids, too.

KT: I regret that. You know, I regret it that I never stayed. But then, I did other things.

NN: Her second daughter is a doctor, her first daughter is a lawyer. Legal assistant. And her youngest is working in the human relations, was it?

KT: I don't remember.

NN: Paralegal, yes, and human resources for the youngest.

RP: Nancy, what did you do?

NN: I went to college, didn't graduate, got married, and then after the kids grew up a little bit, got my AA, then went to dental tech school and graduated. But then I developed an allergy and so I couldn't continue. It affected my eyes, they would just water. And so I stopped that and just got a job at UCLA in the ombudsman's office, and retired in '93.

RP: Did you share, did all of you share your camp experiences with your kids?

AF: Never.

RP: Never?

KT: My grandkids.

NN: Well, we tried, because we coordinated, we got together, I said, "Mom told me things that you may not have heard, and it's the same with you. So let's get together and write some of these things down." And so we have, it's still in a rough draft after how many years.

AF: Oh, really? Good.

NN: So I researched the birth, their age, the background to some extent, as much as I could. And I have it in a rough draft and I just gave each of the sisters a copy. But it really has to be updated because I think there are some changes now, too, especially in reference to Papa not going directly to South America. But he came here first. And I don't know what, how he got to South America, probably a boat or something.

KT: He said it was a boat.

NN: He did?

KT: And then he jumped ship somewhere.

NN: Oh, I was thinking that was on the way back.

KT: Gee, I've been steering you wrong.

AF: They landed in Mexico and crossed the border from there, or something like that, right?

RP: So you're making your own effort to keep, preserve your history.

NN: Yes, for our kids. You know, I have two children of my own, and I have two granddaughters, three grandchildren, two alive. And we all have children, and so I felt it very important to try to get as much as we could so that our kids could know something about our background, their background, and about our grandparents and our parents. But it's hard to get information of our grandparents because of the war and the records that were lost.

AF: And the language. 'Cause we don't speak Japanese, we're English-speaking only.

NN: We're limited.

AF: Yeah, very limited. And they say the Japanese we did learn was very juvenile, from parents to child. But now, it's very complicated now, I understand, and very sophisticated.

KT: Not only that, but I could remember Mama saying, "If you can't speak good Japanese, don't speak it." You know, if you go to Japan or if you see friends from Japan, they'd come over and start speaking. She would say, "If you can't speak good Japanese, don't speak it." I guess it would be embarrassing for her.

AF: It's very difficult for me to think in Japanese, too.

NN: But there's so much English mixed in with the Japanese language now.

AF: But still, basically it's Japanese.

KT: But now, all Japanese, all the people in Japan learn English.

AF: English, yeah.

KT: We have no problems communicating.

RP: Have you encouraged your kids to go to Japanese language school?

AF: Oh, yes, mine all went, but I don't think it did any good. [Laughs] In fact, I even went during college, and it didn't do me any good.

NN: My kids went for a while, and they stopped after a while. My soon took it when he started to go to college, too.

AF: Oh, really? Oh, he did, that's good.

RP: Have any of your kids questioned your camp experience? That's a common, common thing I always hear is, "Why didn't you oppose this or protest the treatment of..."

AF: Did your kids tell you that? Mine never...

KT: I don't remember. I don't think so.

NN: My kids have not approached me about that.

KT: But I remember Brian, my grandson, not too long ago, I can't remember what he was studying in school. And he said, "Did that really happen, Grandma?" "Yeah, it did." He said, "Why didn't you stand up and speak up?"

AF: Oh, really?

KT: For one thing, I was too young, and then we did have people that spoke up for us.

NN: The Sanseis.

KT: The older, people that were older than me.

NN: Thanks. [Laughs]

Off camera voice: I'm with your kids.

KT: But it's funny, it never came up until just, just with the grandchildren.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.