<Begin Segment 25>

RP: You got married in 1951?

TH: Yes.

RP: And your husband's -- oh, was he also in a camp?

TH: Yes, he, (Hiroshi Honda), was in camp. He also served in the army, and he also came, he was in the flower growers business, so for me it was not that big a change in lifestyle.

RP: Where was he incarcerated at?

TH: Topaz. Yes, he was a Redwood City resident.

RP: Did you know him?

TH: Yes.

RP: Previously?

TH: We went to school together.

RP: You didn't do any dating in Topaz, did you?

TH: Oh, yes. I think we had a social life in camp.

RP: Did the opportunity ever come up with your children to share your camp experiences with them? Was that difficult?

TH: As I look back, once when my daughter was in the fourth grade, she had a teacher who knew about camp. But there was nobody else who knew about it, and I thought, "No, I'm not going to talk to the fourth graders about it. They're not going to understand the situation at all." I think they have to be a little bit older to understand. So I refused, and I kind of regret that now. But at that time, I was not speaking of my camp experience to any Caucasians, 'cause I figured, "They're not going to understand. A lot of 'em don't even know, didn't even know that it happened to us."

RP: So what changed, has changed in your attitude regarding that? You're talking now, and you're talking recently?

TH: Oh, as I got older, and my children got older, I would talk to my friends about some camp thing, and they would overhear something about camp. And so they would ask me what camp life was all about. So we had some discussion, but nothing really huge. And I didn't want them to feel inferior to their Caucasian classmates, so I didn't want them to think that, "Gee, my mother and father were incarcerated." Not everybody would understand the situation, so I didn't talk about it.

RP: Did your, when your father spoke English and had sort of an Americanized, American outlook on things, did he ever become an American citizen when the opportunity came?

TH: When the opportunity came, of course, he and my mother studied English, enough English to pass the test, and they did become naturalized citizens.

RP: Do you remember that day?

TH: No, I don't. But I know a group of them, the Issei, got their citizenship together on the same day. They were sworn in.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.