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AI: Well, now speaking about your work, you got very involved in your work not just as executive director of Atlantic Street Center, but very quickly you got involved in the larger arena of issues -- first around juvenile justice. And last time you told us about some of that work that you did including on a state-wide and regional basis to start changing the nature of system's response to youth who were in trouble. And now I want to shift the focus a little bit toward the '60s, when as I understand it, around the '60s is a time when the first concepts of "ethnic pride" started developing, because that was also the era of the Civil Rights movement really becoming prominent. And I wonder if you could just give me a feeling of that decade of the '60s, what it was like for you in your work, in your position, and the people that you were working with, what were the big issues at that time and what you were focusing on.

TI: Well, at the local level, there was issues about equal job rights. And I know one time I was picketing Sea-Tac Airport.

AI: You did talk about that last time, yes.

TI: Yeah. It was a frightening experience for me because I saw these white officers from the smaller towns who rarely had experienced confrontation. And I could see by their faces they were scared. If they were scared, it's dangerous.

AI: It's dangerous because...?

TI: Because they, they may get trigger-happy or try to say they're being attacked. So they'd use force. So in order to cool it down somewhat, me and an African American screened all the young people that were picketing, and those Caucasian students especially who had the sticks but not the poster on it. We threw them over the fence. And ease off this confrontational approach of just using a stick, versus a sign. That sort of thing. When I went to a national conference in New York City, there was a march in New York City, and toward, ended up in the Sears Roebuck for unfair employment practices. So we, (I) demonstrated.

AI: Now, this sounds to me still somewhat unusual for a Japanese American to be rather active in demonstrating in public.

TI: Yes.

AI: Did you feel like you were sticking out, or did you...?

TI: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. And I knew most of my friends, Japanese American friends, didn't do that sort of thing. And...

AI: Why did you choose to do this?

TI: It goes back to my commitment to myself about, in the camp that this injustice will not continue. That I needed to be involved. And so based on my work relationships and extended relationship with others across the country, I quickly got in tune with rabble-rousing and protesting, and felt comfortable doing that.

AI: Even though you felt comfortable doing it and it was part of your own personal commitment, did you ever receive any negative comment from, possibly from other Japanese Americans or others about this activity?

TI: Yes. I felt that I wasn't behaving according to the norm among other fellow Niseis. But it was part of the work culture I was in, which I felt comfortable in. And so I was in a way fortunate to be in that environment where I could be involved. And it's kind of like Min Yasui, at, being different, being able to learn how to speak out, protest, organize. So I, I don't blame other Niseis for not being involved. It's just that the work that they were involved in precluded this kind of firsthand experience which I had.

AI: So for example, if a person was, for example an engineer in a corporation, it might be much more difficult for them to speak out than for a person like yourself.

TI: Yeah. For most Niseis who worked at Boeing, they had the opportunity to really increase their level of responsibility where so-called "glass ceiling" was there. And times were rough for young Niseis. Whereas I was somewhat free in my environment and fellow workers were involved, and so it felt more and more comfortable, even though I knew that kind of behavior was not acceptable.

AI: In the Japanese American community?

TI: Yeah.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.