<Begin Segment 9>

AL: Just to step back for a moment into, to your history, do you know of any contact between your mother and you or your mother and the War Relocation Authority? I mean I know there were some letters exchanged while you were at Children's Village between I guess it was between the WRA and your birth mother. Do you know anything about that?

AS: Well, they just asked her if she wanted to take me after the war was over and she said absolutely not. And she moved, she was then married, she moved with her family to Chicago. And sometimes I thought, well, I would like to get in touch with her in Chicago but I didn't make the attempt. So I'm sure she's passed away.

AL: Do you know why at that point she didn't want you?

AS: Well, for one thing she wasn't married. And then she, my father had a family of his own and of course she's not gonna reappear in the family and say, "Guess what, I've got a kid of yours." No, so she wanted nothing to do with my father or his family. She just wanted... or myself 'cause it reminded me of bad things in her life.

AL: Okay. And do, what do you know about any, you said that she remarried, do you know if she had other children ever?

AS: Yes, because when she went into camp, she went to Heart Mountain, she had an eight month old son called Kenneth that I, that I'd known and I'm sure she had other children when she, maybe in the camp or when she got out of the camp.

AL: Have you ever thought about contacting them? Or you feel just...

AS: Well...

AL: How do you feel about that?

AS: I thought of contacting her but I thought, no, I don't want to stir up resentment and bad feelings. I did not attempt to. I could have if I'd tried hard enough.

AL: Right.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.