<Begin Segment 14>

JA: What did you learn from your experience in camp? What did you come away knowing or feeling?

BS: What did I learn in camp? Well, in camp you had to get along, otherwise there'd be constant fights among all your neighbors. Other than that, I don't think I learned anything in camp. More anger as I think about it.

JA: Talk to me about that.

BS: Oh, the anger that I feel now? Well, we found out that, later on, that we could have... they could have prevented us from going to camps, but that, I think, the President -- I may be wrong -- but the President decided to go ahead and do it. My feeling was that Mr. Roosevelt was a racist because I remember when he refused the entry of that boatload of Jewish refugees into the United States, and those poor refugees were refused entrance into South America, and I'm sure they all had to return to Europe and they were probably all killed. But... and then another thing, too, I have a friend I play golf with who is a Pearl Harbor veteran. He was stationed in Pearl Harbor the day of the attack, and he said later, while we were playing golf, that, "You know, we were on alert for several months, and about three months before Pearl Harbor, the alert was cancelled." I don't know if anyone has said anything about that, but it, it was such that I know the President wanted us entered into the war because we had to protect England and to save Europe, because he was trying, he was doing everything he can to send supplies to Europe, to England, so that they could be able to fight the Germans. So he wanted this war and he got it. He'd go to the Japanese -- they were stupid -- Japanese military was stupid. I asked my cousin when he came here, my wife's cousin when he came here to visit, "What did the Japanese military think that they had a chance of beating this large country with all its resources? How could they be so stupid to attack the, attack the United States?" But he said, "I guess they were just stupid."

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2002 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.