<Begin Segment 21>

KP: I do have a question. Let's jump back to during the war... you said your brother George was in the military?

SK: He was in the signal corps.

KP: How did, did he go in before World War II?

SK: No, it was after?

Off Camera: Oh yeah.

SK: It was after, uh-huh, peacetime.

KP: Oh, it was during peacetime, okay.

SK: Yeah, uh-huh.

KP: Okay, so it wasn't 'til '46 or...

SK: He was too young --

KP: Right.

SK: -- to, to be in the World War...

Off Camera: He was still going to school in New York.

SK: Yeah. He was still in school, right. Uh-huh.

Off Camera: High school.

RP: Let me follow up with a question, a similar question to Kirk's. You were entertaining some of these Nisei soldiers in New York who were coming back from the front. What, what was your feeling in terms of their contribution to how, how society later on saw Japanese Americans or how...

SK: Okay, well, before they went -- you're talking about when they came back -- before they went in they were so gung ho and they were anxious to get into the battle, from my experience with them. But coming back they were so different. I mean, they came to visit us but they sort of had a faraway look in their eyes. They had lost a lot of buddies, I guess, for one thing, and (...) they had grown up. They had become almost old men. I noticed the extreme change in them. But I do realize that they contributed a lot to Japanese Americans as a whole. That because of their brilliant military record, laws were passed that our parents could become citizens for one thing. And Japanese Americans could vie for any office in the government or be successful in private business. They could do anything. And I think it was largely due to what the soldiers did (that) we were given these benefits.

RP: Did you also personally feel a, sort of a drive or a desire to prove yourself worthy of recognition?

SK: Oh, I don't know if I ever would drive myself. I always felt I'm an American. (...) It's not a conscious kind of a feeling. As I say, I felt betrayed when I was treated like I wasn't an American. And, but since that was over, then it's always been there. But there was nothing I could do to prove it except just go with my beliefs.

RP: Be who you are.

SK: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.