<Begin Segment 30>

RP: What did you think about the events around 9/11 and the aftermath, the backlash towards Muslims, Arab Americans? Did it sort of rekindle a feeling of what happened during 1942? Especially with your father being picked up, was it sort of deja vu? Feeling about that?

AF: I didn't have any. To me, I guess it seemed so different, so separated. I mean, it wasn't a mass thing like in our case, where we were uprooted and all that.

KT: No, I was going to say I really...

AF: Did you have any relationship?

KT: No, I really didn't concentrate too much on it, 'cause I was going through problems at home with my husband. He was ailing, and so my thoughts were elsewhere, I'm afraid.

AF: Oh, yeah, I don't blame you.

RP: Nancy, do you?

NN: Let's see. I'm not aware that Japan bombed the United States.

AF: She's too young, six years old.

NN: And I wasn't aware of anybody being killed by the Japanese here in the United States. But when 9/11 came about, it was such a blatant act to our country. I was somewhat angry. And there were outcries about the Muslims being identified, and that's possibly true. Because I think as Japanese, we experienced that, being Japanese, not Americans, but Japanese. And so I could understand the fears of those Muslims that may have encountered that kind of circumstances. And I don't know, I really don't know, because I don't know much about the Muslims. I don't know too much about the Koran, what it really truly says. Whether it is true what they say, that it is to "kill all the infidels," and we're part of the infidels. And so I really am in a quandary as to what the true response of how to react to that. I can't condone harming anybody, and I do not condone if the person is not guilty of having any, you know, harming the United States. It's a matter of how do you find the... how can you determine that? So I really don't know how to react to that fully. I don't know if I'm making myself clear.

RP: Kirk, do you have any questions? Bruce, do you have any questions?

Off camera voice: No, I'm listening to you all. Very interesting to me because I've gone through this process. You never know what's going to come up.

RP: Right. And we, both Kirk and I thank you very much, and the Park Service thanks you for an experience that was very educational and enlightening, and at times very humorous. I'd like to thank all of you for traveling and coming together.

KT: I think we should be grateful for you, too, for getting all this down, and it will be here forever, for the people after us.

<End Segment 30> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.