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TI: So I'm going to shift gears a little bit. I want to learn a little bit more about Don Tamaki. If, in high school, if I were to ask your friends, "What's Don like? How would you describe Don Tamaki?" What would your friends say?

DT: [Laughs] Well, I probably was way too serious. But I think that's just my personality, but I became politically very active in high school. And again, it was I think in part because of the war that was going on.

TI: And so what does it mean, "politically active"? What would be an example?

DT: Well, for instance, there was... I think a lot of people were turning inward. And again, I would say for a lot of minorities, it was the tremendous impact of the civil rights movement that there were things that were wrong about America, that were not true to its creed, and that we ought to do something about it. And that penetrated from the college campuses right into the high schools. And so for instance, this sense of American history, we would go to public schools, and in the public schools, you'd learn about California history and United States history, but Asian Americans were not ever mentioned. So it's nice that Densho is doing this, that we're actually part of the fabric of American history. But you wouldn't know it. Maybe blacks got mentioned as being slaves. In fact, that's basically the only area aside from George Washington Carver or a few other prominents, but beyond that, nothing. Maybe Asian Americans in particular, Chinese Americans building railroads, that's about it. And so there was this sense of, we ought to know our own history. And so students as young as high school were saying, "What's wrong with our curriculum? We should have, we should know about these things." And that became questioning in other areas.

For instance at Oakland High, I knew that some of my friends were functionally illiterate. I mean, this was high school, and yet they had been promoted from one class to the next and they couldn't read. And they were ending up -- see, the other thing was that you could get a student deferment and not get drafted if you could go to college. And so college students felt tremendously guilty, 'cause they didn't, they could escape this. Whereas their counterparts who didn't even have money to go to college, or didn't have the grades, ended up in a meat grinder, war. So that in itself was politicizing. We began to question the... we need remedial education programs within these schools, and we need something that is more to get students into a situation where they can either get a job at the end of this process or go on to college. And so, and there were other things about more counselors, things that were wrong about the schools. And the interesting thing is teachers joined us, too, because they felt that the students were articulating things that they'd been asking for for a long time. And so there were a couple sit-ins at the school board, and there were, it's a very active coalition of high school students among the six high schools in Oakland, and I was part of that leadership.

TI: And what do you mean when you say "part of that leadership?" What would be an example of the role that you played?

DT: Well, there was a group, loose coalition, called Associated Students Union of Oakland, that we had formed among black student union presidents, the other ethnic activist groups. Oakland High had this group called Asian Bloc, and they were others who basically began to look beyond what was going on from a social standpoint. And we put together a list of changes we thought the school needed, and we organized a march on the school board. And at that time, the teachers unions were also complaining about not being paid enough. So it was kind of an interesting intersection between what the teachers wanted and what these student activists were asking for, organizing for, it sort of converged. And it did result in some changes. They put an honorary student, high school student as part of the school board meetings, they had people begin to look at the curriculums and, sort of, the other things. But that launched me into just this whole thinking that, you know, we could actually change things. And that was part of the luck of being born in that generation. We believed we could actually make a difference. And so a lot of that is naivete, not knowing any better. But once you believe you can make a difference, then kind of the world opens up to you. And we were looking to do more and more. So at that time, when I went to college, again, the war was just raging, and we just felt that it was kind of a moral thing to speak out and help get the country back on track and end this war. And so there was a lot of organizing activity, marches, demonstrations, news, creating the news, actually, to ultimately be part of that national movement which ultimately did end the war.

TI: And were there quite a few other Asian Americans who were part of this?

DT: Yeah. They were very much keen to that. And I think it was a real awakening experience. And the fallout from that, or "fallout" is a strong word, the good thing from that, is that then people directed that energy back into their own ethnic communities. So a lot of these organizations all were born at the same time. Like in the Bay Area, I helped to form Asian Health Services, which started out as a little health education project, and is now, provides primary care. It's considered a safety net institution, doctors, nurses, paramedicals. And they have, I think, about a hundred thousand patient visits a year. Another group that was formed was Asian Community Mental Health Services, which, again, people thought, "Asian Americans do not have any mental health problems. What are you doing?" Well, they do. And that was, started out that process. The Asian Law Caucus, which is the oldest public interest law firm representing Asian Americans in the country, was started during that period. And not just in the Bay Area, in Seattle, in L.A., New York, all of the organizations started about the same time. So all this energy went back into those communities.

TI: And at what point during all this did you decide that law was a profession or a career that you wanted to pursue?

DT: Well, I broke the stereotype. I couldn't do math, not like you. [Laughs] Not like you, Tom, in terms of science, that was not my forte. But I could talk and I could write. And law, again, our role models, there weren't very many Asian American lawyers. There were just a few of those. Our role models were the folks who were influenced to want to make change, to make a difference, were African American lawyers. And I used to look at these guys in Oakland and the Bay Area, and I was amazed that they were out there advocating for their community, providing leadership, they understood the law and they could try cases. And you kind of look around and you thought, "You know, I want to do that." And so that led me to want to go to law school.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.