Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Martha Shoaf
Narrator: Martha Shoaf
Interviewer: John Allen
Location:
Date: November 7, 2002
Densho ID: denshovh-smartha-01-0007

<Begin Segment 7>

JA: This, a lot of the people coming to Manzanar, to the visitor center and seeing this film will probably not have known a lot about this period, this era. And I'm wondering what, in your mind, you think we ought to try to communicate, that they should take away with that, from being there?

MS: That who should take away? The Japanese?

JA: No, the visitors who come to Manzanar...

MS: The visitors?

JA: ...who will be from other countries, from across this country.

MS: Well, I think they... this is kind of a hard question.

JA: Okay, you're a teacher, you can do it.

MS: [Laughs] It is a hard question. When other people come, and you know, you see how other people are treated, you, when you travel in other countries you see how people are treated. And, of course, you see a lot of things that you don't approve of. And in this country, when people come from foreign countries or other areas to visit, and if they come to a place where we had, like, Manzanar, they would wonder, "Well, what were these people there for, and why were they there?" And basically, they were there because you could tell 'em from other people, they were Japanese, and we had a fear of 'em. So they were taken off of the coast and put in these camps because you could identify them with the way they looked. And they're afraid now that maybe they might be doing the same type of thing to people who are related to the peoples that are the terrorists. And these, you don't know, these people are probably very nice, the other ones -- not the terrorists, of course. But the same thing seems to be happening to them, too. They're being isolated by the communities, they're being not treated as well as they should be by some people, and people have a tendency to do that. And I don't like to see that happening in my country. I think everybody should have a fair shake, and if this is the type of thing they see and they know it's happened once, could it happen again?

JA: That's a good answer.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2002 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.