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AI: Well, now talking, speaking about -- going back to some of the uniqueness of the community and the role models that you had, I understand that your father was a very active member of the community and that he took some leadership roles. Can you tell a little bit about the, the part that he played in the Gardena community?

LB: From the time I was really young, I remember that he was involved in community events, emceeing dances and programs or organizing sister city exchanges between cities in Japan and the United States, bringing high school students over. He was active in the Lions Club, the VFW, the Veterans Associations, so he was always involved in some way or another in smaller scale community events or even larger scale community events. Ultimately, probably about the time that I got into high school, he ran for a seat on the Gardena City Council and ultimately won a seat on the council, so he was certainly involved in community activities in the political arena, and through that, continued to speak at events, continued to try and help neighbors, friends and neighbors, who might be experiencing some type of difficulty with the law or some type of tragedy or some situation going on; he would do what he could to help them. And eventually, he went on to the California State Assembly and other offices. But I have a real strong sense of a number of Nisei leaders in our community. Bruce Kaji was someone that I grew up with, and I went to third grade with his son, and they lived the next block over, and he's been a tremendous influence in the community, again, emceeing programs, putting together fundraising activities, and I identify him so much with really making the Japanese American National Museum happen. Helen Kawagoe was someone I knew growing up, as one of my parents' friends. She and her husband, always at the events that I went to. And now she's been involved in the National JACL. So these are people I remember from just my very, very earliest memories, to kind of give you a flavor of the kind of role models that I grew up with, and, and who've really profoundly taught me and so many Sansei about the importance of leadership and giving to the community.

AI: Well, it's very interesting to me to hear you describe these examples of very active people who take initiative and who conducted themselves in, in a very public role in many ways because it's so contrary to, I think, one of the general stereotypes of a Nisei, both men and women, as being rather passive, not really taking much initiative.

LB: Certainly I think one of the really unique things about Gardena and certainly the southern California area is the size of the Japanese American community. And I think there's a lot to be said for the concept of critical mass. In Gardena, there were so many Japanese Americans that I think that leadership can develop and people can strive to affect their community. I think it's much, much more difficult when you're in a community that does not have that critical mass, where you are facing daily issues of stereotypes, of people putting on you the stereotype that you're quiet. You're Japanese American, so you must be quiet, so you should stay quiet. And you're not encouraged to develop. You're not encouraged to speak out and assume leadership roles or even non-leadership roles, just active roles. So I think that, again, it was a really unique community that I grew up in because people could pursue their dreams, could pursue their interests without a lot of the barriers that are put up in most other communities to people of color.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.