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LT: And your father, in addition to his administrative work, also wrote for the newspaper, and then he eventually decided that there should be a record of what happened in camp.

TT: And this is part of the thing I always credit him with. The guy thinks outside, thought outside the box. But he thought about things no one else would even think of. He wanted them, there to be a physical representation of that which was done to the Japanese American people, and not in a negative sense, because we were making the best of it. But yes, to make sure that this wouldn't go without recognition as it did, and all the way through school, I never saw it any of my history books. But he wanted to make sure that people wouldn't forget this, that it was something that was truly wrong that was done, but that the Japanese people really rose above being put in a horrid place and did some wonderful things. So, yeah, part of this outside the box and his futuristic thinking was this, and that Minidoka Interlude has given so much pleasure to people as they've looked at it, and given so much information of people, of friends, I always, when they come I don't always have it out or anything like that. But people ask about it, and everyone is shocked. It's the worst-kept secret that America has in our history. And even to this day, we just don't have the kind of coverage of it that needs to be, I think.

LT: Well, here's a copy of the Minidoka Interlude that your father edited. This is the original. And what I noticed in the foreword is the title focuses on: "By looking back, we look forward." At the end of his two-page foreword, he quotes President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and here's the quote: "The United Nations are fighting to make a world in which tyranny and aggression cannot exist; a world based upon freedom, equality, and justice; a world in which all persons regardless of race, color or creed may live in peace, honor, and dignity," end of quote. "This statement," your father said, "by President Franklin Roosevelt, convinces us that we can look forward to the time when we shall regain our rightful places as free men in a land of free people," Tom Takeuchi. So, here he is, incarcerated in a camp by the United States government, through Executive Order 9066 signed by President Roosevelt, and he's speaking about a country where there will be equal rights. How do you think he could be so forward-thinking?

TT: He truly believed that. He believed -- in fact, he could never understand things that people do to each other. He never would believe the bad in people; he never did. And had it been my mother, who was a little more assertive, her saying would not be the same. But no, he really believed that people in time would come together and they would be... when people talk about world peace and I laugh about it, he really believed it. He really believed it and he was the gentlest man. I never saw him be mean to anyone, and I'd say something like, "God, that person's so ugly." "No one is ugly," that kind of thing. How did I grow up like that and end up like this? I don't know. But yeah, this is exactly how he thought. He was a huge believer in man, mankind and they're gentlest to each other. I always tell everybody I'm a realist, and I see that here we are, how many years after, and we're not even close to there. But yeah, he did believe it, where, to me, Franklin Delano Roosevelt doesn't hold any kind of status. My father had respect for him as, not for everything he did, but he never, ever brought up the bad stuff. So that's the way he was; that probably is him in a nutshell. Extremely positive, and like I said, I never even heard him say a bad thing about another person.

LT: Did he talk about the reason that you were in camp?

TT: He talked about it when we were, yes, when I was younger. The one time I remember he told us we were in there for our own protection, because other people might be mean to us. This was when I was younger, one of the few passing times came that people might be mean to us. So for our, to be protected, we needed to be put somewhere safe. As we got older, he did say that there was so much hatred that, at the time, that part of this -- he still did talk that part, that in part it was to make sure that we were safe. I don't think he... nah, he believed it, he did. Because he wouldn't imagine that one person would turn on another person just because of color. And being American citizens and everything, and put 'em away. I don't know if he ever came to be able to resolve this in his head. All he knew is that it's done, it's past, we look back as a mess-up, and we're going to do better in the future and we go forward.

LT: Let's talk more about the Minidoka Interlude. If you were to look at it and not know what Minidoka was, you might think it was a regular school yearbook. What do you see in it and how in the world did he get it published while he was in camp?

TT: I know, I know. This is the most amazing thing. And this is the reverse die on the front, so when we went to reproduce it, it was so interesting to hear people talk. Even the way he put this together, it's a reverse die and all this. He just really does, he was a great researcher and he was a terrific organizer. And so he did, he checked with people in Jerome and Twin Falls and this, to find someone who would support and work with him. Because we had no, there was no money for this, we didn't have money set aside. And he worked with them hand in hand, and I don't know what he offered them, but people came together for the pictures and everything, and to think of it, all these people with their photos, getting them together for... god, we can't even get our family together a group photo. And the stuff, yeah, he just, it's something he loved and it became his, I'm sure his passion, he had many over the years. But became his passion, and he just did it, like Nike says, "Just do it," and he did.

LT: So what kinds of photos do you see in there?

TT: The stuff that always amazes me, of course, are the barrack ones. When you see the masses of people, and I always, after you look and you say, "How many of these are American citizens?" and most all of 'em are. And here we are in front of those ugly barracks, that it is, it's a concentration camp, you know. Our rights were taken away. I am, would be far more vocal than my father or mother, luckily I was two days old or something, otherwise I would have been having an absolute conniption. I love the pictures that they took of the different organizations, the fact that people had activities, that's very, very positive to me to see that, even though it was a horrible place to be, that people found ways to get together and do things. I'm impressed with the number of ads he got, which actually paid for the thing. Because I know when we did, when I've done booklets and stuff and we need to find money to publish it, that kind of stuff's hard. But man, he has so many people in here, and he was able to get... and I know it wasn't a team of one. But yeah, so those are the photos, I looked at the old businesses, and the activities people had, and then I do always look at the barracks and look at the number of people. Man, that's a lot.

LT: And so it included photos of people in each barrack, but also identifies those.

TT: Yes. I don't know how he did that, I mean, that's huge. But yeah, it's very impressive. So when he said what he wanted to do with his redress money, we all just kind of sat there, and man oh man, it's a good thing, however... then when he had the gall to die and left us with the project, luckily he had everything written out or I don't think we could have done it.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright &copy; 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.