<Begin Segment 31>

AI: Well, and then as this national redress movement was going on, here in Washington state there was also something called the Washington Coalition on Redress. Of course, Cherry Kinoshita and a number of the other people were involved in that, and one of their goals was they knew that there were some Washington State employees who had been dismissed.

MN: Uh-huh, and they worked on that, and they were successful.

AI: Right. And then I, I believe it was in 1983 that Cherry and Mako Nakagawa and a couple other people --

MN: May Sasaki.

AI: May Sasaki, they were thinking about what happened to you and the other school district clerks. Tell me about what they discussed with you and what they were suggesting.

MN: They really had a hard time persuading us that this is the way to go. 'Cause like I say, Nisei women were still in the old ages. I mean... and I didn't think anything like this was possible, so I wasn't gung-ho at first. I go, "This is ridiculous. Why does it have to go through all this?" you know. But then after they kept persuading and talking to us, I thought, well, this is the way to go. So I was the first one to say, "Okay, we'll do it. I'll do it." And the others followed.

AI: What did you think you were gonna be, when you said you would do it?

MN: I didn't know what I was getting involved in.

AI: And they had done, it sounded like they had done quite a bit of research.

MN: Oh, they did a lot of groundwork. They did a tremendous amount of groundwork, and I hand it to them for doing all that work.

AI: Apparently they found some old newspaper articles, they found that copy of the letter that you all...

MN: We all signed, yes. And that's when I realized that I was at that meeting, because I had signed that letter. Because up to now I still blocked that whole incident out about the meeting with Jim Sakamoto. So I don't know what happened at that time, but I did sign it.

AI: So then tell me about, as your efforts moved forward to try and get the redress from the Seattle School District.

MN: Well, Mako and Cherry and May did, they did all the work for us, and they just told us what we had to do. And then we had to go before the school board and tell 'em why it was necessary for the redress.

AI: Tell me about that, about going before the school board.

MN: It was a scary thing to do, because I never spoke in front of anybody, and I was the first one on the program. But I think we all did a very good job to convince them. And it followed with another session after that, too. And the second session, there were three others that talked, and this one woman was agitated by the whole thing, and she was protesting, and every two minutes she would stand up and make a remark. And she had pictures of camp, and she had pictures of kids playing marbles on the ground. Well, that's a happy atmosphere. That's not what the whole camp life was about. Anyway, so she had that kind of stuff, and she happened to be sitting next to me, and she would get up and protest anything somebody said. And so finally, the attorney said, "If you get up and say any more remarks, you will be forced to leave the room." And so she didn't stand up, but then I could see her getting agitated and wanting to stand up, and she forced herself to keep sitting down.

AI: So what kind of reception did you get, or reaction did you get from the school board members?

MN: Well, it must have been good because they passed the measure, and we were able to get our compensation from them.

AI: And as I understand, reading about it afterwards, that the, that although the Seattle School Board did pass that measure, they in turn had to get some, another approval.

MN: From Olympia, and Cherry Kinoshita, I think, went down there and pleaded the case and was able to get it.

AI: And so ultimately, I think, I read that it was Governor Gardner who then ultimately signed a bill in 1986 that then, finally, you and the other clerks received your school district...

MN: We had a celebration at that time, at Nippon Kan Hall, and Governor Gardner came and he signed it in front of all of us.

AI: What an experience that must have been.

MN: Yeah, that was a triumphant day.

AI: My goodness. Well, so in fact, 1986, that is well before what happened with the national redress, even.

MN: It is?

AI: Yes, because the national redress bill was signed by President Reagan in 1988.

MN: Oh. I thought this all came about later.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.