<Begin Segment 18>

KP: So when you look back on your life as a, a journey, what part does the relocation take? I mean if, if you try to look back on that? How did that change your life or, what do you...

YM: Not... it didn't change my life that much because we didn't own any property or work for people. So it was just the same. And then I didn't work since 1975 anyway. That's when I retired.

KP: And you finally returned to California down here?

YM: Uh-huh.

KP: San Diego, in what year?

YM: '94.

KP: So in 1988, there was the redress movement and soon after that the letter and the checks came out. What did you think about that?

YM: I just said thank you. [Laughs] I didn't think about anything else. I thought, well, if they want to give it to us, okay.

KP: There was also recognition that what had happened to people of Japanese ancestry was illegal and not in the best interest to the people of this country. So did you have any feelings about that?

YM: I don't know. I know some people thought that we shouldn't get that, but I mean I... for what we lost, that was nothing. 'Cause we lost our home and everything. We had nothing. We just had the two suitcases that we got out of camp.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.