<Begin Segment 18>

LG: So how do you think your family's wartime experience had impacted you and your sense of being Japanese American or any events of your life? So the question...

MR: The wartime experiences?

LG: Yeah. The experience of your parents and your grandparents, family in Hawaii, D.C., its impact in your lives, how people treated you?

MR: Well, I guess arresting my grandpa and putting that, wow, finding out about that, well, racism is really, really something that's pretty strong in the United States. Something, one way or another, it's something that you can't avoid, and it's something that you should try to combat in any way you can. Okay, and my experience of my father, I guess, and in spite of his dad being incarcerated, he would still go. In other words, he would say, "That's bad, they were really rotten to do that, but the Nazis were worse." [Inaudible] So that's what he did. And that was quite true. It was more important that you had... so now, you can worry about the racism and the injustices here, but the Nazis were more dangerous. So he felt he had to go and fight, and that's what he did.

LG: Do you have connections with other folks who are connected to the 442nd Division? Was there a community surrounding either descendants or...

LR: [Inaudible] Hawaii, I remember when we went to the museum.

MR: Yes, we've gone to the museum. There's a museum there and we talked to people there. And I still receive their newsletter.

LR: And they've also taken the letters.

MR: Have they taken -- is that, they've taken the letters, and are they keeping them? Do they destroy them?

LR: No, no, we have them, but they did show them as part of the exhibit.

MR: Okay, all right. I remember them doing that.

LR: And I'm in contact with them as well.

MR: Okay.

LR: [Inaudible] about the letters.

MR: Oh, really? Oh, yeah, have some.

LG: Were you ever involved in the redress effort?

MR: I don't think so. Just reading about it, I guess.

LG: You've sort of already talked about it a little bit, but I'm going to ask it, I guess, more directly. But what values did your parents instill in you, have you maybe taken from them?

MR: I guess that would be Louise, what values? I don't know. [Laughs] Well, from Louise. Louise, Louise, Louise, Louise.

LG: Are there qualities that she had that you admired or took into your own work or life? Or if not from her, where have you gathered these qualities from, these values?

MR: I guess, well, I guess she may not have... she was aware of racism and things here, and I don't know what I can say. I think you're supposed to do the best you can, even though people may say bad things about you, but you just go on and do the best you can, that kind of thing. And I think you're supposed to work hard at whatever you tried to do, do the best you can with that. Pay attention to folks that matter to you, your family, and things like that. And don't go wandering off doing strange things. But sort of pay attention to what's important, what's important to do, because of things like that.

LG: Is there anything that I haven't asked you that you think I should that you want to talk about, you think I'm missing?

MR: I don't think... I think we covered just about everything that, and thoughts that I had. There's my little notes and thoughts.

RB: A question that I have, I think I heard that Louise was quite involved in Judge Marutani's campaign as part of the JACL.

MR: Yeah, okay.

RB: I don't know if you guys know anything about that.

MR: No.

RB: Okay. Yeah, I've heard that Louise, along with Reiko Gaspar were two people that really helped Judge Marutani.

MR: Okay. I think everything, all the little thoughts I had, little things that I remember, gee, sort of hard to remember all these things.

LG: It's a lot of questions.

MR: It's hard to remember things way back there. I mean, way back. Okay. Yes, I think I've talked about all the things, the things that I remember.

LG: Did you have any other questions?

RB: I think that's it. I mean, I think, like you said, you covered pretty much all of the main topics.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2023 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.