<Begin Segment 22>

MC: Did you want to say anything at all about graduating from law school and preparing for the bar exam? Is there anything that, that sticks out in your memory that, about that point in your career?

LB: My law school experience was really very mixed. Obviously it was really hard. It was the most difficult thing I've ever done academically in my whole life. It was demoralizing in many ways because half the time I had no idea what people were talking about in class, particularly my first year. I didn't do really great my first year. And you come into contact with a lot of people whose views are very, very different from yours. So it was really difficult and trying in a lot of different ways, but at the same time, I have to say it was a really great and rich experience because I was able to work with such incredible people, and I made some lifelong friends who inspire me every single day now. I was involved in a lot of political struggles with people on the faculty, a lot of conflicts.

And I have to tell you that one thing that really stands out to me about my graduation is that when I went to graduation, my folks were there. And I thought well, this law school feels like, good riddance to this troublemaker, to this person, and good riddance to this law school, too. And I received an award at graduation for outstanding academics, leadership, and activities or something like that. They chose one person out of the graduating class to receive this award. And I pretty much literally fell out of my chair when they read my name because I really thought that they were just so glad to get rid of me. And especially the academics part of the award, I thought was really pretty hilarious. But that was a wonderful lesson for me. It told me that I could work in an environment on political issues and leave with respect, that you can disagree, you can fight for different things, but maybe in the end, people will respect you for your position, even if they don't agree with you. And I think that that's something that I've certainly carried with me quite a bit, that when you fight your fight, you don't want to fight the fight hoping that everyone likes you in the end. But it's nice to know that maybe they might, and maybe you can leave the table and still work together and have respect for one another. And so that really was a very special award to me because I did respect these people. I thought they were absolutely wrong in many things that they believed. But I did respect them because I knew they were just trying to do their job and I was trying to do mine. So that was really a pretty significant thing in my law school experience. The bar exam was just a horrible experience, and there's really nothing redeeming to say about that. [Laughs]

MC: Actually, your last answer reminded me of the fact that the award that you got and, and what it symbolized to you in some ways contradicts some of the, perhaps some of the early lessons that you were learning from your family, about perhaps not making too many waves, particularly as a woman. And it raises the larger question of the culture of law school or legal education being somewhat at odds with sort of traditional Japanese culture or the values that you might have picked up as a child. Do you have any thoughts about that at all? Did you feel that law school changed those values, or do you agree with me that there might have been some conflict at all?

LB: I think there's a tremendous amount of conflict. I think the answer is quite complex. Certainly the answer is complex even outside of law school. I come from a family that, that really embraced many of the traditional cultural values of, you know, don't make waves, don't be conspicuous. Yet my father was very much out there, and my mother was very much a renegade for pursuing her education. So within my family itself there's a lot of conflict. Certainly when I went to law school, all of that flew in the face of everything I had grown up with. The whole Socratic method, the whole thing about getting called on and having to recite a case and engage in dialog and debate, I had not grown up with. Speaking out in class was really very intimidating to me and really frightening to me. And then again, getting politically active, that was the first time in my life that I took some real leadership in an adversarial or quasi-adversarial -- I don't think anyone would call it adversarial -- context, but it's also the first time that I really felt passionately about some of the issues, political issues, that were going on around me. And so it was not difficult for me to speak up, I think because of the tools my family gave me. But it made it frightening to speak out because of some of the baggage that I got being Japanese American.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.