<Begin Segment 19>

RP: You made several visits to Manzanar since you were actually put there, with this Los Angeles church?

KK: We went to the fiftieth (anniversary of the camp), when they said that... they announced it was going to be part of the National Park system, we were there. And then we've gone the three times with Rose and, you know, met the people from West L.A. Church.

RP: When you visit the camp where you were, do you have any reactions or feelings that come up?

KK: Well, it seemed like a jungle, you know, I mean, there's so many much more vegetation because it was just... they must have stripped all of the vegetation to create the camp. That was the first thing I noticed, all of the plants.

RP: You had a pretty happy time there, a lot of friends and, you know, typical of young kids.

KK: Exactly.

RP: Even though, did --

KK: And I don't think my parents didn't hold any, I mean, strong feelings against it or if they did, they didn't ever tell us about it. And they were young too, my dad was probably (thirty-eight) and my mother was about thirty or so, when we went to camp.

RP: Now looking back, sixty-eight years, over all that time, how do you reflect on that, on your experience?

KK: Well, I think it's a horrible, you know, thing to have happened. And of course, it changed all of our lives, I mean, dramatically. Probably for the better actually because, you know, people were dispersed all over the country, they were able to go to schools. Probably at the time, you know, people had a difficult time but I think we, in many ways lost our language, because so many of us didn't, you know, we were not encouraged to speak Japanese. And for many families, I think it was very heart wrenching and a difficult time because they were torn apart. Being from a younger family, I don't think we felt that as bad, I mean, you know, as much as many of the older Niseis. Probably people in their twenties and teens, twenties and early thirties who were just beginning to be established, I'm sure that was a very difficult period for them. But as a child, my perspective is from a child's, I was seven and ten when I left camp. I turned eleven in Utah.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.