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AT: Well, thank you. Is there anything else that you want to mention regarding, I don't know, maybe the pilgrimage, or really anything else that you think is important?

SS: Well, the Tule Lake pilgrimage, I think the important thing about that is two things. One is bringing out the stories of the "no-nos." Because, actually when we started the Tule Lake pilgrimage, we didn't even know the significance of Tule Lake. We thought it was basically just like any of the other WRA camps. And it wasn't 'til folks like Satsuki Ina and Hiroshi Shimizu, who were both at Tule Lake, Satsuki was born there, Hiroshi was, I think, three or four when he got sent there. They got involved in the late '90s, early 2000s. And then Barbara Takei, who's done a ton of research, and is probably the expert on Tule Lake history, got involved. And Jimmy Yamaichi, who was also at Tule Lake, and knew more than anybody about actual physical layout because he was a supervisor in the construction crew at Tule Lake. So that team of people, and a few others really pushed for, we need to recognize and uplift the story of the "no-nos" and tear away the stigma that surrounds it. So we purposely tried to dig out that history. And we've always done these what we call intergenerational discussion groups where we get small groups of people and, usually, in the beginning there were like four or five out of twelve were survivors who had been at Tule Lake. And then the rest were like younger people, or people outside the Japanese American community, and just have them talk about their experience and try to make it a safe space where they could talk and bring the stories out. Are you frozen?

KK: Maybe you can keep going though, because we're still recording.

SS: We're still recording. Okay, so that's one thing is that we started getting people to actually talk and stories came out. We purposely choose different themes like the jail, the stockade, renunciation, Hoshidan, as different topics to focus on. And that really, I think, brought out the history and we learned a lot more about the experience. And that kind of set the stage for like the... oh, she disappeared. That kind of set the stage for the Resolution Three, the apology to the "no-nos." Without that work, I don't think it would have happened. There's something else about Tule Lake, but now I forget what it was.

KK: Well, if you remember, because we also do a written summary as well, that it can always get to put in there, even afterward.

[Interruption]

AT: Okay, I guess any final thoughts before we kind of close out the meeting?

SS: No, I'm glad that you are doing this because I think it is important to get stories recorded and put down because otherwise they get forgotten or lost.

AT: Yeah. I mean, I was just so excited to be able to interview you because I just... we did some research beforehand and so I knew that you were involved in, like, many different things from before as well as things were very recently such as like the Tsuru for Solidarity and work with JACL now. And so thank you again for meeting with us and talking about everything. And yeah, that's all I have to say. I don't know if, Kyle, if you have any final thoughts.

KK: No. I think you did a great job at bringing a lot of knowledge out, so I think this will be a great recording.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2022 Seattle Chapter JACL. All Rights Reserved.