Densho Digital Repository - Darlene Mukoda Interview

Densho Digital Repository
JACL Philadelphia Oral History Collection
Title: Darlene Mukoda Interview
Narrator: Darlene Mukoda
Interviewer: Lauren Griffin
Location: Bridgeton, New Jersey
Date: June 19, 2023
Densho ID: ddr-phljacl-1-27-18

[Correct spelling of certain names, words and terms used in this interview have not been verified.]

<Begin Segment 18>

LG: I guess maybe related, why do you think it's important to share your story?

DM: I think I have a unique story to tell, because not everyone, everyone was traumatized to a certain effect. But I was traumatized in a way that not necessarily relates to camp. It relates to my life situation as a whole. I can't blame it on camp, I can't blame it on anything. All I can say is I've lived my life the way it was made to be lived. You lived your life the way everyone lives their life the way. And unfortunately, yeah, I had some bumps, but you know what? Came out a winner, and what more can you ask than that? That you come out on the winning side, and everyone could come out on the winning side. No one has to be defeated by anyone, we're all good. We're all good and we all deserve the best. And that's what I want for everyone, the best. Many times, I thought, you know, I can never be the best. I can only be the best if I was born white. But I found out that you know what? Doesn't matter. There are so many people that I admire of every race, does not matter. And if everyone could realize that, you know, we thought George Washington Carver, you know, Frederick Douglass or Marian Anderson, nor Toyota or Honda. [Laughs] It's not a racial thing, it's a personal thing, and everyone can be the best.

LG: Did your parents instill any values in you?

DM: My dad. The way my grandfather was a strong Christian, you know, I can honestly say, I can never, I never saw him angry or not kind. I mean, he used to get mad at my sister because she used to pick her pimples. But we had a friend who died picking her pimples, and so he didn't want that to happen to her. And she used to get so mad at him. She used to yell at my grandfather and I used to say, "Don't yell at him, don't yell at him." Because he used to say, when he'd tell her why, and I understood why. My sister was just my sister. She had her own personality, and I don't think she ever had the inferior feeling that I did.