<Begin Segment 8>

RP: Did you have, I know you mentioned you said you felt betrayed not only by your country but sort of by your father in a way because he had this idea that you'd be exempt from going to camp. But did you have a lot, during this time of working for the WCCA and seeing what was starting to form, develop --

SK: Yes, yes.

RP: -- did you have any inclination at all to challenge any of the orders?

SK: No, no. I didn't.

RP: Did you take a really strong position?

SK: In a way I was hoping that I could go because it was such a tense time for us. There was so much, like I mentioned, hostility from the, from other people. And, and I just wanted to leave this climate that was so difficult for us.

RP: And did you see that, that atmosphere of tension and hostility really ratchet up after Pearl Harbor?

SK: I don't quite understand your question.

RP: Did, did the hostility increase after Pearl Harbor?

SK: Oh, yes.

RP: The anti-Japanese...

SK: Oh definitely, definitely. And so we would hear reports, like in the Japanese bilingual newspaper, about people being attacked, people being run off the street, people being killed because they had Japanese faces. So when I approached my mother to say I was thinking about volunteering to leave to help set up this relocation camp, she was so relieved. She said, "Now I won't worry about you being (run off) the road." So, in a way, yeah, yeah. Although I was angry at the government, I still wanted to get away.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.