<Begin Segment 48>

AI: Well, unfortunately, we only have a few minutes left here and there's so much more that happened to you after Jim got his assignment to Okinawa working for the Army Corps of Engineers, was it?

MK: Army Corps of Engineers.

AI: And, but, rather than going to that portion of your life right now, maybe we can only mention that in the meantime you had four kids. You, after Okinawa, you returned to the United States and continued your education and continued your career in school nursing. And I'm sorry we don't have to go into, have time to go into that now. But I did want to come up to the point of redress, where, and I was wondering, you know, when the activity for redress first started happening in the earlier years, I understand that some people didn't think it was a very good idea, or they were unsure, not sure that it was such a good idea to be asking for this type of thing. Do you happen to recall what you thought, or what you felt when you first heard about redress?

MK: Oh, when I heard that the reason why we need to ask for the redress it needs to hurt and have an impact. I mean, money does -- in America -- money does count. So I had to agree that that goes toward that, and especially for the education fund. As I look back on it, it certainly was well-done. Otherwise we wouldn't have all these grants to leave all this work that we, I did, and we're all doing. Because, hopefully it will contribute to education. I don't think we -- I think we still have work to do, but...

AI: So, in other words, you did see that as a positive movement for redress?

MK: Yes. And in the Constitution, those words are used, that "redress" is used, in the State Constitution, so, rightfully, I mean, it's certainly a token amount. This is something we really have to say it was token, because some people (frequently say), "Oh, that's a lot." But I have to remind them, it only buys a half a car. And in that way it sinks in more. Because --

AI: Excuse me. But when was it that you found out that you weren't going to receive redress?

MK: Oh, we got our letter, formal letter saying that we are denied. And that was the time my son Ames, who was in the legal study at UC Berkeley, said, "It can't be." And he was the one who was so upset. And really pushed me and pushed me and then, of course, he was with a bunch of legal study pre-law students that... and then in a simple way, being that he was so young, he said, "Well, all of you should get together and put that in one pot and fight the government," and... you know, we're all scattered, how do you go about it? Not everybody belongs to a JACL, so even if you put it in... so all in all, well, it worked out and I'm so glad, (...) I went to the JACL and they said, well, it was still at the beginnings. They said, "Let's not rock the boat. We'll see, until it really actually happens then we can bit by bit work toward it." And same with the Asian Law Caucus, my son went, because he's young, well, you know, he wasn't taken very seriously. And that upset him. But then he did have some classmates that eventually went into law and she happened to be working for Morrison and Foerster and she talked this over with her boss -- she was doing her internship. And the boss is the one who said that he would take it on pro bono. And I certainly appreciated it. I never met (Lisa Oyama) and she's married (...), but I did write her a letter thanking her. But it was because of this. And then, when Morrison and Foerster came in, the Asian Law Caucus came it, then the JACL was backing up, so, in some ways I am disappointed with the JACL. And I can understand they didn't have the clout, but with an American, large law firm behind us, they're the ones who paved the way.

AI: So, with the support of an established law firm --

MK: Right, right, combined with... yes, I think that was the only way.

AI: So, I think it was, I had a note here that said that it was in May of 1992 that you got the denial letter.

MK: I think so, okay.

AI: And then it was later that summer that you, that an appeal letter was sent to you and was it that fall, September or so of '92 that Morrison and Foerster actually helped you file the suit?

MK: Yes, it was soon after, uh-huh. But, so they're the one who initiated the Marion Kanemoto v. Reno. But then we didn't, it didn't actually come to (...), fruition because it was settled before we even went to court, but they were preparing to fight it all the way.

AI: So they were preparing for a class-action lawsuit.

MK: Right, right.

AI: And that was, and you were named there as the main plaintiff --

MK: They used my name because the others didn't speak up as, so we had a couple of meetings at the Asian Law Caucus held in San Francisco. So we're all scattered, but we did in a small way, get together (at) the Asian Law Caucus, with the help of Morrison and Foerster. (...) If we paid, if we were successful, (...) there were only fourteen names and two of them were my brothers. And then I called two other friends, one was in New York and one was in Seattle -- no, not Seattle. Oh, Concord, California, I told them about it and they joined. But see, I wasn't in touch with everybody. And all this costs money. And so, finally we got fourteen names (...). But if even one got cleared with it legally, see, that would have cleared everyone, the 345 of us.

AI: 345 minors that, minor children.

MK: Yes, between the two ships (exchange trips) I understand that there were 345 minors, right.

AI: Minor children who had been taken to Japan.

MK: Denied, right.

AI: And therefore, denied redress.

MK: Right, right, right. And then, only 215 or so got the redress because we applied for it and we fell into that category. And the gentleman I called this morning was wondering what happened to the others. Well, that was because they probably died. And I know two of 'em has died. So, they lost out. And if they didn't apply, they were in Japan (or) they never came back, or then they would fall into that small group of people. So, at least there is a closure to this. We tried.

<End Segment 48> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.