Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig Interview
Narrator: Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig
Interviewers: Larry Hashima (primary), Glen Kitayama (secondary)
Location: University of California, Los Angeles
Date: September 11, 1997
Densho ID: denshovh-haiko-01-0003

<Begin Segment 3>

AH: The Asian Americans for Action continued to do its work. I remember being, recall the Native American Affairs and remember meeting Ted Means, Russell Means' brother. Oh, and that was when I think Peltier was arrested and we were trying to help to get a fair trial for him. We involved ourselves in various issues. I remember Zimbabwe, Rhodesia -- that was one of the issues. One of the leaders, of course, was Mary Yuri Kochiyama, and she, of course, had so many connections. She met everybody from the whole world and I remember she brought, I think it was Robert Mugabe's brother to one of the meetings to talk about the problems before Zimbabwe was turned over to the natives -- this was, they were under colonial control. But you can see the wide range of activities in which we got involved, and had, of course, largely to do with the Iijima's family and Kochiyama family and Minn Matsuda, primarily those three. Because so many of the -- a number of the members that were, not recruited because there was no recruiting going on -- but came from the Christian church -- there was a real nice connection, that they were able to take back some of the messages to the church, about oppression in other countries, to people who worked at the headquarters at the Methodist or Presbyterian church in New York City. If they heard about some of the things happening in Triple A, they could take the message back to the headquarters, and make people in the church, in the international division or wherever, aware that -- "How about paying some attention to these subjects?" So it had subtle, but far reaching consequences, I think, that Asian Americans for Action's activities generated.

And I have always been proud to say that I had been one of the early members. And I was very sorry to hear that they had disbanded and I don't know why. I left New York City to come to live in Washington. I think the times changed, international affairs, different kind -- of course, the Vietnam war ended to begin with, that helped, I'm sure. But each one of those persons who were members previously of Triple A, I think they became involved in other issues, like women's issues. There's an Asian women's organization. Some of the members involved themselves with that. And I think there were other movements, so the work actually hasn't died. I think it's taken on different names.

GK: When did you actually move to Washington, D.C.?

AH: I came down to, I went to Washington, D.C. in 1978, I think it was.

GK: And Triple A was still active at that time, when you had moved?

AH: Yeah, I think, I think it was still active. Or else it was starting to wind down, '77, '78. I have a feeling they were still in existence at the time. I got involved in my work and a lot of personal things, you know.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.