Densho Digital Repository - Rev. Michael Yoshii Interview (Densho ID: ddr-ajah-1-10-3)

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PW: So going back to when you were first appointed, that happened to be 1988, which is a significant year for Japanese American history since it's the year that the Civil Liberties Act was passed. Tell me a little bit about how that impacted your congregation and your actions as a church. What happened?

MY: Well, the Civil Liberties Act was passed, actually, on my birthday, August 10th. And I was at a youth camp that year called Lake Sequoia Youth Camp. And we got the news and so we celebrated my birthday and also celebrated the victory there at the camp. But immediately, in terms of the ministry, I think there's a... there was a critical need to begin to do what I call theological understanding of what did this mean for our congregation, for our people in general as well. And that's what I could call "civil liberties theology." We've heard about "civil rights theology," but what is "civil liberties theology"? It's about how do we understand what has taken place for us as people of faith in terms of what is God doing with us and for us and our people? And so that would start to come out in terms of preaching. He would be there in the form of content and Bible studies and activities of the church as well. And what I recognized right away was that a lot of our folks had not talked about the experience. There maybe had been a few that had been really engaged with things, but not a whole lot. And so I began to organize things for people to tell their own stories and be able to have opportunities within congregational life to share their own stories, which was not an easy thing for people to do. I think what was clear to me was that there are people who are in the forefront of working on the redress and reparations movement, but there were still places like this in Alameda where a lot of folks had not talked about their experiences.

PW: Can you give me an example of people in the congregation who were involved with the redress and reparations movement?

MY: Well, I think there were key people, say, who were, maybe would go to meetings where the redress movement was going on. Prior to my going to the ministry, I was involved in volunteering for the redress hearings in San Francisco. So in 1981, I was not yet in seminary, but I was going out to churches, and that was kind of my task, to go out and encourage people to get involved and come to meetings and so forth. And I don't remember going to Buena Vista at that time. I remember going to Berkeley Methodist and to Lake Park Methodist. I don't remember going to Buena Vista Methodist. But they typically would have maybe somebody who was a representative to go to informational meetings and so forth.

PW: Do you know if there were people in your congregation who testified during the NCRR hearings?

MY: None of them testified. The one Methodist who I remember who testified, who made a big impression on me was Lester Suzuki, I think he was a pastor at Berkeley Methodist at a particular point in time. But he really made an impression upon me with his humor and his exhortation around why redress had to be passed.

PW: Am I correct that Mr. Suzuki was also, or Reverend Suzuki has written a book?

MY: Yes. He wrote the book about ministry in the camps. I can't remember the exact title of it. In fact, he brought that book to the hearings, and he had a box of books, and he gave his testimony and he quoted scripture as to why there needed to be monetary redress as well. Of course, he was making that all up, because there was no such thing in the scripture about that. But it was his humor that struck me. Then he held up his book, and he says, "I've got a book here about ministry in the camps," and he was going to give a complimentary copy to everybody on the commission, and then he turned and said, "I have a special for you today for $9.95." [Laughs]