<Begin Segment 17>

RP: I want to go forward a little bit and, talked earlier about this reunion that developed in 1991 or, I think it was '92, that Tak Matsuno helped organize.

CT: Yeah.

RP: Unfortunately you weren't able to be there, but when did you first begin to reach out to this part of your past, the children's orphanage, which was one of the happiest times of your life? And tell me how important that was to do that.

CT: It was very important. I wanted to see everybody and talk about, talk to everybody about their experiences and how it affected them. And I was absolutely sick that we had been in Turkey, that we had already made plans to go to Turkey, and number one, I did not want to disappoint my husband 'cause he worked hard all year and looked forward to this trip for months, so that was number one for me although I was extremely disappointed that I did not attend. I thought about Manzanar, thought about the reunion while I was in Turkey. My mind was not in Turkey. It was over here. And then it was after that when Annie gave me all the material that I got Ruth's address and was able to correspond and then I became more interested in, from, from then on, to meet everybody to talk to. Like last night we had a very good visit just with the former orphans and Wilber, and it was interesting, like Dennis would tell us something I didn't know and Karen, she, she told us a few things I didn't know, too. And it was just nice talking to them on a one to one. See, we all met after the dinner and when there were fewer people around, so, and I'm still interested in them, interested in every one of them. I like the Matsunos very much and Tak is the one that first contacted me about the 1991, and I liked his family.

RP: Have you returned to Manzanar?

CT: The pilgrimage?

RP: Was, you went to the pilgrimage this year. Had you been to one before that?

CT: Yes. Yes, we had been to one when Sue Embrey was still alive, and I think we've been to two others. Yeah.

RP: And so what does that bring emotionally and how does that affect you, going back there and...

CT: It makes me feel proud. I mean, it does. It makes me feel good because, I told Peter, I said, "Peter, I feel comfortable because I'm among my own people again," which I've been away because I'm married to Caucasian man. We were out of the loop as far as meetings and things like that with the Japanese people. The only contact I had with Japanese people was the Nitake family. Years, every year we would meet, but as far as community, I was never involved in the community. So it's, it felt good, felt good. And then, and then they decided to do this book, but this book has been in, ten years, twenty years in the making with Hansen, Professor Hansen and his crew first, and so we went through many interviews and I figured, okay, I will cooperate and go on interviews, but I didn't see that it was gonna become a book until all of a sudden there became a renewed interest in the book. And then things start flying fast, and Cathy had called me and interviewed me some, so I was very happy when the book came out. I was shocked that it came out, as a matter of fact. I ordered a lot of books and gave 'em to my friends for raffle prizes and things like that and, and really have enjoyed the book and enjoyed reading the other people's perspective on how it affected them and all.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.