<Begin Segment 62>

TI: So when you take a step back and look at that whole process, the program and everything, what do you see? Are you pleased with how it went?

HS: Pretty well. Because we were able to fund 150, 155 various projects and programs out of that 18 million. And at the same time, we were still able to give so many millions to the NAJCS, a sustaining, or what you might call an endowment amount. And they have three endowment programs, one cultural, one in sports, and one in education, out of that whole deal.

TI: And just in looking back, were there any things that you would have done differently, in hindsight?

HS: Gee, in hindsight, it's hard to say. We might, the thing we didn't do, and we did about get caught into that trap of accepting... well, one of the things we did not do, we always wanted to be sure that if you're gonna get a project, show us you've got a project that is going to be worthwhile. And the first thing that a lot of these people were doing, were doing a feasibility study so that they can say, "Yes, it's a feasible program." It is going to be backed by the community. So, you know, the total cost of everything we did, the budget for the regeneration was actually eighty-three million dollars. We committed twelve million, and through all the different efforts of all the various communities, the actual amount of money that was used for these regenerations programs was eighty-three million. So we, we got how many times, eight times or seven times...

TI: So it was very, it was a process that generated, it was like seed money to generate a lot more.

HS: Yeah, seed money, but most, because that was the major stumbling block, buying the land or putting the money into a program that you could get it started, and then they would then go to other agencies and that was good.

TI: So that's all positive, was there anything kind of, again, in hindsight, you would want to do differently?

HS: I can't, I don't know... well, I'm not sure what we could have done differently without jeopardizing the amount of, we had, we were able to do two things. We were able to do all the programs, always during the time that we were doing these programs, we were making money, that money was coming in. So money was going out to these programs, but because the investments that we had were so good, it was, money was coming in from the investments. Eventually, all that, it might have been nice for the foundation to have continued, but one of the, when we weighed the proposal, originally, the life of the Canadian, Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation was supposedly agreed by the, on the memorandum for five years.

TI: So it was supposed to sunset.

HS: It was, it was supposed to be a sunset agreement. We were supposed to finish. But at the end of five years, we had, we found that none of the projects, to a large degree, a lot of the projects that were started were not finished yet. So I had to go to, to Ottawa, and we had to go and talk to the minister who had now since, was a new government, and we discussed it with them. And they, they looked at our books and they thought, why, this is a foundation that has done well because not only was it doing its work, but it was making money. And so by doing that, instead of flitting the money away to... a lot of the foundations that were funded by the government, the money was going into a hole in the ground, we were actually getting more money to do the same amount of work. And we, they said, "Okay, we'll extend your time. How much time do you need?" We thought, well, how much time are we gonna need? By this time it was '95, we said, "Well, at least another five or six years." They said, "Take as much time as you want." We decided 2001 or 2002, that's enough.

TI: Now, why did you choose, was it the NJAC?

HS: NAJC.

TI: NAJC.

HS: That was the, that was the National Association of Japanese Canadians, that was the overall umbrella association that did the initial, all the work in getting the agreement.

TI: So you thought that was a good organization to carry on.

HS: Yeah, and they were, and they were a good organization in that they had the welfare of the total of Canada rather than one city or, each had their own chapters. And we wanted to have something that was national, not localized to Vancouver or Toronto, a tendency that that was always going to happen.

<End Segment 62> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.