<Begin Segment 10>

AI: Well, in fact, speaking of the veterans and those that died in service, soon after you came back to United States and you, then you were discharged -- and I understand that you became active with veterans work very soon after that. Was there a, I think it was the Nisei Veterans organization...

PB: Yes.

AI: ...that -- did you help found that, or you became very active with that.

PB: Well, there was the building here in Seattle I used to visit, Nisei Veterans. There was a, a start of a Nisei Veterans in Los Angeles. It was called Nisei Veterans Association. I became active in that. One of the things that we did, and I've always felt that those of my buddies that didn't come back, we ought to remember them and we ought to honor them by some way. So we bought a plot, a pretty good plot in Evergreen Cemetery, and we erected a monument there. We used Sadao Munemori's picture in order to build a, have a statue made. People think it's Munemori, but I've told them that we didn't want to honor one individual. But we did use his picture, so the monument there... we also bought some plots, and we asked that people, that if they wanted to bring back their loved ones that we would give them the plot and they could be buried there. So there were several of 'em that the families, especially from Europe, brought the remains back and they were buried in Evergreen. But that was my first effort, you might say, in order to try to point out to people -- not only the Japanese Americans, but other people -- that there were Japanese Americans that were, loyally fought for the United States and sacrificed their life in order to, well you might say prove that they're Americans.

Since then I've served on the, I was the treasurer of the California State Veterans Memorial. It is built on the state capitol in Sacramento. And that one is for all the veterans. There were more veterans in California than any other state, and we built a very beautiful monument there. Anybody can go there. We've asked all the veterans to send their names in, little data. They can push a button, and we have a, imagine where, if you want your picture it'll come up or just data about you. But that was something I worked on for several years, and I'm very proud of that. Since then there've been other memorials. I have helped the Korean War Veterans, Niseis, the Vietnam veterans and that, and I'm sure that some people know that I was one of the organizers of a group called "Go for Broke" organization, made up of Niseis. And our objective, one of the objectives was to build a monument in Washington, D.C. And we introduced a bill in Congress with the help, of course, of Spark Matsunaga, Dan Inouye. Eventually, of course other people got on to the bill. But the idea was to build a monument in Washington, D.C. to Japanese Americans who were killed in action. Well, that bill was refused, as you know, because they said, "We cannot have a separate monument for an ethnic group of soldiers." So we had to make an amendment to the effect, to get it through the Congress, that it was for the heroism of all Japanese Americans. And it's appropriate because our parents and the families also suffered an awful lot during the war. So I think that I was happy to serve on that commission, and to raise enough money to build it, and to go back for the groundbreaking and the dedication. And I think it's something that we have left that is good for the Japanese Americans throughout the United States.

AI: And that dedication just happened this fall.

PB: Yes, October...

AI: That must have been --

PB: ...was when we had it. We were having a meeting, another final meeting in two more months. The monument is a beautiful monument. It will be done, completely done and landscaped in a couple more months. And if you haven't seen it, I encourage all Japanese Americans at least take a trip and go there and see a monument that is dedicated to them and their heroism and their parents during the war.

AI: Well, congratulations on that.

PB: Yeah.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.