<Begin Segment 23>

RP: Last time we got together we talked a lot about this letter that your Quaker neighbors wrote and that you submitted to the Commission on Wartime Internment and Relocation, and also to the L.A. Times, or I guess it was his wife that did that. But --

MI: Yeah.

RP: -- it did create some support and sort of a rallying point for people to, to...

MI: Oh it created a big... I'm beginning to realize how much it takes... it's not something immediate, but it takes a while for all these things to sink in. And suddenly it's like an awakening. Said, "God, did that really happen?" And so there is something good about that. And the fact that I get so many requests to give talks about my experience in camp to these high school kids and to the grammar school kids and some of the questions are so funny because they're not living in the context of 1940. They're living in our day today. "What, you mean to tell me you didn't have washing machines or you didn't have dryers?" I say, "No."

RP: Television.

MI: No television. "You had to go to the john outside over there?" And I go, "Yeah." "Well, how come?" That was wartime, you know. What do you... it's difficult to explain to that. But there is one thing that really stands out. As young as they are, even high school students, realize the inequality of the whole thing. And if that is so, I hope that they learn a future lesson for other people. 'Cause actually it impacts everybody.

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