<Begin Segment 43>

AI: So tell me a little bit about this, about the Campaign for Justice.

AS: They started a Campaign for Justice because so many of us got denied. And Grace Shimizu and the NCRR in L.A., they got together and that's how Campaign for Justice got started.

AI: And at that time, again, very few people really knew the story of what had happened to you.

AS: Uh-huh.

AI: Was that about the time when you and other people started talking about the experience and speaking?

AS: Yes. Uh-huh. Grace Shimizu, Libby Yamamoto, Eloy (Maoki), and I. We started going to different communities and different schools and started speaking.

AI: What was --

AS: I guess some of, a couple in Southern Cal, too, I think.

AI: Well, when you first started speaking, what was that like for you?

AS: [Laughs] You know, like, like, I don't like to speak. I'm not a speaking person anyway. So, especially, speaking in front of people and like, sometimes you go to Berkeley, you know, and there might be two hundred, three hundred students. It was kinda, it was kind of hard. [Laughs] But I figured somebody had to do it. So, so, the first few times it was hard, but I guess like everything else, you get used to it. I mean, after a while you don't feel it.

AI: Well, what kind of questions did people ask you? What kind of responses did you get from the audience members?

AS: Not too many, because we, because they were limited to so much time they have and then, and then the next class come in. So, so they didn't have too many questions, they didn't have too, too much time for them to ask too many questions. But, so they, so they had, they had paper, pass out paper that they can ask questions in a paper so we, so we can answer them. But not too many were asked on the floor.

AI: I see. Well, as you were going around doing this speaking, do you think that, did you ever come across people who had any understanding of what you had gone through? Did anyone, had anyone ever heard of your story before, this experience?

AS: No, lot of 'em, most of 'em didn't. In fact, some of the girls were crying after they heard our story. They couldn't believe it.

AI: Well, when you, when you tell it, it does sound kind of unbelievable.

AS: Uh-huh. Especially with this powerful country like ours, to do something like that, it's hard to believe.

AI: Well, the Mochizuki case then was... went on for a couple of years.

AS: Uh-huh.

AI: And tell me what the government's position was and what the government said.

AS: Well, the government wanted to, they wanted to dismiss the case. Stuff like we went to a couple hearings and they wanted to dismiss the case. In fact, the one time we had breakfast with some of the congresspeople and Patsy Mink was fighting for us, too. Her and Congressman Bacerra. In fact, the first time we went to, we went to Washington, D.C., they, we had a conference -- I mean, press conference and they spoke, both of them, in our favor.

<End Segment 43> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.