<Begin Segment 23>

RP: Jim, how did you get involved talking to the school kids and college kids?

TT: Well, I don't know if you know Mary Tsukamoto, she was with the (JACL), and she asked the VFW, she was doing that, you know. And she asked us, so that's how I got started. That's why a lot of 'em, a lot of our speakers, they dropped out. But we get a call, we still get calls once in a while. We still go, but there was, oh, there was about ten, twelve of us used to go around. But we're down to about four now.

RP: And who do you speak to? Who do you speak to?

TT: Oh, anybody that give us a call. We go to college, college and high school, grade school. But every now and then we get a call from (fourth) grade schoolteacher, that's hard to get down to that level. But one of our speakers, she works with, she's a public health nurse, and we let her do most of the talking when we do that. [Laughs] But as far as high school and colleges, we have no problem. But we go, whoever asks us, we go. We went, we went on a trip to Quincy one time, we got a call. She got us on the internet. I don't know, whoever got on the internet. She called us from Quincy, we went on an overnight trip out there. Like I say, whoever calls, we go. We go to Grass Valley, Nevada City, Placerville.

RP: Did the children seem interested in your stories?

TT: Pardon?

RP: Did the children seem interested in your stories?

TT: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. But you know what really gets us, there's some people that ask us, "Did it really happen?" I said, "You better believe it. We're survivors," I tell 'em. [Laughs] I went to a, what is the high school in, over there by Marysville, and there's a, I was surprised, there was a lot of Southeast Asians. I don't know whether they're from Vietnam or Cambodia, I was surprised. And I was talking to them, said, "You went through about the same thing as we went through," he'd tell us. You know the "boat people." And it's very interesting. They had it a little rougher than we did, but basically the principle was about the same. It was very interesting.

KP: Anything else, Richard? You do go around and talk to children.

TT: Yeah, whenever they call us, we go.

KP: So how do you sum up the camp experience? What has it contributed to who you are? I mean, how does that fit in with who you are?

TT: Well, it's quite an experience. Because unless you lived through it, it's pretty hard to explain. But they said, "How do you feel? Weren't you mad?" and all that. I said, "Sure, you were mad. Lose all your rights. But what being mad for? You're not going to hurt nobody but yourself. Once you get over that, you're fine." But we go and let the people know what really happened. Because a lot of the stuff they, it's not in the book, that's one thing for sure. Because when we first started this, I think it was one little paragraph in the book. At last now there's lot of books written that, what we went through right now. But when we first started, one little paragraph in the history book. And we went to, what is that, high school over there by the other side of Marysville. We went over there, they had a history, but one little paragraph. So the next I went, a few years later, they had a whole book on that. Quite a difference. Yeah, over there by Wheatland. We went to Wheatland High School. I was quite impressed with that difference a few years made.

KP: Do you think this is an important American story? Do you think this is an important American story?

TT: Well, I think it should be told. I don't know important it is, but I think it should be told, people should know about it. Because you get in the East Coast, I don't think they know about it. I think it should be told so you don't help -- in other words, because what I heard, what is it, Iranian war or something, the first on, Iraq or something, the hostage deal? I heard they had a camp already built, ready to go. Because I remember we had in our VFW hall, we called it NAACP, and the Jewish whatchacall'em and all that, we had a regular conference. So what our theory was, "In 1942, what you did to us, haven't you guys learned anything?" We had KCRA, we had all the radio, media and all that at the VFW hall, we had a news conference. And so I don't know what became -- maybe it helped, I don't know, but they didn't put 'em in... they already had a stockade built. I was shocked when I heard that. The way I look at it, no matter what, they didn't do nothing wrong. They're still American citizen regardless. According to the Constitution, we're all equal. But like I always tell the student, I says... every now and then, ones in high school, especially high school, they tell you that, about the "Constitution failed us." It's not the Constitution. The Constitution is a well-written document put in play. But the elected officials are the ones that... that's why. "Go vote," I say. "One vote will make a difference. Because it's up to the people that you elect to uphold the Constitution. They're the ones supposed to enforce it," I tell 'em. But you'd be surprised. I couldn't believe it. Some of these people lived in California all their life. I guess they were too young or something, but they said, "It really happened?" I said, "You better believe it happened."

KP: Anything else you'd like to share?

TT: If you ask me, I don't know. [Laughs] But it was quite an experience. You know, one thing that I might add, that I don't know if it's important or not. You know, they put us in camp, and then a lot of 'em realized that, went back, went to school, became a lawyer, doctor and all that. I often wonder, if that didn't happen, whether you'd follow your parents' footsteps, be a farmer or doctor or dentist. We wouldn't be what we are today, diversified as we are today. But if you look at it that way, in a way, it helped. Because they all went, realized they have to get an education and all that, and all went.

KP: I've also talked to people who were in Colorado and didn't go through the camp, and it's the same story. They all grew up on the farms doing all the chores you were doing. And many of 'em went off to become doctors and professors and stuff like that, too. So I think it's probably just the emphasis on education.

TT: But you hear some funny stories. You lived through it. But I can't complain. Like I always say, no sense complaining when nobody will listen. [Laughs]

KP: Well, on behalf of myself and Richard and the National Park Service, thank you for sharing your stories with us today.

TT: My pleasure, my pleasure. Thanks for asking me. I hope it helped.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.