<Begin Segment 15>

FS: So anyway, I guess it was convincing enough that we went to the press conference in Los Angeles, and we're sitting around the table and Bill Lann Lee walks in and talks a little bit about his family. He started talking about reparations, and in seven minutes he said, "We're giving you reparations." And my husband says, "Wait a minute. For ten years you've been denying everything. Why did you change your mind in seven days?" Because (we'd) been in Washington seven days before that. And I just kicked him under the table, I said, "Don't you know when to shut up?" [Laughs] But he explained to us it was different researchers, and different things that made them decide to rule in our favor. So he had told us no press conference. So we didn't invite anybody, TV stations. Well, he had set up a press conference, and he had notified people. We said, "Gee, if we had known that, we would have called the TV stations and everything else. But after he announced it to us, he said, "Open the doors and let the press in." And we were kind of in shock, 'cause he had said no press conference. So my husband and I had moved to the back of the room, and he had this podium in the front, and he had like a seven-page typed thing that he was reading off of. And my husband and I were sitting in the back of the room, and Bill said something and I can't remember what. My husband, who usually has no, never shows any affection, jumped up and hugged me. And all of a sudden, this newspaper thought, "Something's going on," so they came over and they started taking pictures of us. And I'm kind of grinning because if they ever knew they were wasting all this film. [Laughs] And then this newspaper from Japan was there, and they thought, "Well, if he's taking pictures, I better get over." So he came over and started taking pictures. Well, Bill saw all this going on in the back of the room during his speech. So after he finished, he says, "We have a railroad family member in our audience who would like to come up and give her speech." And I thought, "You've got to be kidding. Here you have seven or ten pages of prepared information and you expect me to get up to just start talking?" So I ignored him, and I sat there. Then my husband says, "They're waiting." And I said, "They can wait forever, 'cause I'm not moving." [Laughs] And he says, "They're waiting, you better get up there." So between the time I left my seat to the time I got to the podium, I'm trying to think, "What can I say?" and I just didn't know what to say. So as I got up there, Bill Lann Lee says, "I'm going to stand next to you." I said, "Okay." He says, "Well, I'm going to give you a kiss," and he gives me a kiss. And I thought, "Okay." He says, "Now, give your press conference." So I thought, well, and I went up and I started thanking all the people who had worked with me and helped me along the way. And my husband's all nervous, he says, "I kept thinking, 'Oh gosh, don't leave anybody out.'" Because there's nothing worse than leaving out an important person. But he says, "I think you covered everybody."

So I said, "Thank you," and I started to leave, and Bill grabs my arm. He says, "That was beautiful, now (give your) press conference." I said, "That was my press conference." He says, "No, it's not." [Laughs] So by then, all these microphones are in my face, and I said, I told my husband, "I don't know what I said," because I was just, you know, in a daze. And I read it the next day in the newspaper, and I says, "I must have said this," but I didn't realize what I was saying. But I had to laugh because while I was in Washington, the prongs on my wedding ring, the diamond, was loose. So I had taken my ring off and sent it back to my nephew, who's a jeweler. Well, I guess the Japanese newspapers figured I wasn't married, so they called my husband Kametaro Shimada, and it came out in the papers. I told my husband, "My father is just rolling over in his grave when he sees that." [Laughs] But outside of that, I think everything went fine. But we had to laugh about "Kametaro Shimada." [Laughs]

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.