<Begin Segment 20>

RP: You said that you attended, attended this meeting when, where the Japanese American community was trying to sort out its reactions to, you know, evacuation orders. you know, "Should we go to camp willingly or not?" How were you... tell us about what your, where your attitude was at or your opinions about this based on rumors and the opinions that you were hearing. Were you able to form your own ideas about the injustice about this, the unconstitutionality of it? Was that something you were thinking about?

MI: I think I was a little bit naive that way. I didn't I think understand the depth of the, you know, the situation. You just kind of wonder and then you follow along. I think as you mature, and I realize I go, well, I told you about that letter I wrote to General DeWitt? It took me until I got in camp for me to realize what was I doing in this place? And I go, why didn't it hit me before then, is the question.

RP: So your attitude changed.

MI: MY attitude changed because I thought it's sort of like an adventure for a teenager, I guess, when you think about it. You're moving, you're going, you know. But when I started seeing that my dad is losing his business, we're losing all our property. He lost his new car that he worked so darn hard for. What for? I said, "We're not from Japan." You know. Then, then when finally we went to camp is when I realized the injustice of the whole thing. And you're always taught in civics, in high school, that we're all equal under the law and I said, but how can you be equal when you haven't had a hearing as to whether you're guilty or not guilty? And that's when I wrote that letter to General DeWitt.

RP: There was another friend that...

MI: Yeah, Marie Hisamune, she was my classmate at Sacred Heart. And we decided to put our... well, she and I, in order to keep busy, decided to write. First we started writing a murder mystery. And we came to a point where we couldn't figure out how to end this darn thing. And then so the next thing was, you know what, we ought to write to General DeWitt. Says, "You know what? I don't know what we're doing in here." And so Marie and I put our heads together and we wrote and we said we haven't gotten our constitutional hearing before we're declared guilty to be put into this place. Why is it? How is it? And how could it be? And then we wanted an explanation. And we were getting a little bit smarter, you know, at that age. Okay, we'd better send it to General DeWitt. But oh, somebody says, "Oh, they'll throw it out." No, we won't. We're gonna make it registered directly to him. And so he must have gotten it, 'cause we never got the letter back, anything, no answer and...

RP: Never received a reply?

MI: No, never got a reply.

RP: How long had you been in camp before you decided to take this course of action?

MI: Not quite six months, I bet.

RP: Six months.

MI: It dawned on us real quick.

RP: Just looked around and...

MI: Says, oh my god, can't get out of camp, you can't do this. You can't do that. The food is lousy, the physical facility is lousy. What did I do to deserve this? And then it, it turned out to be at that age we were realizing that it was hysteria. We figured that out.

RP: Did you have any second thoughts about writing that letter after you had sent it? Like, are they gonna, you know, are we gonna be put on a blacklist or anything?

MI: Nope.

RP: You felt...

MI: We're fearless.

RP: That's, well what have you got to lose?

MI: We said, hey, we're only sixteen, what are they gonna do with us?

RP: Yeah.

MI: You know. And of course, yeah, I've been told more than once, "Oh, you're probably on the blacklist." I said, "So?" In a way, it's sort of a compliment you know.

RP: Right. Yeah, it took a lot of courage to do that.

MI: It's either courage or you're so darned innocent. If you were worried about what's gonna happen or what would happen to you, you're not gonna do a thing. If you think you're right and you need an explanation, it's as simple as that. Just that was it.

RP: Yeah.

MI: So there was no gaman there. Tell it like it is. [Laughs]

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.