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TI: Okay, so for the second hour, Don, we just got into some of the reasons why you chose law. So let's go into law school, and why don't you describe what law school was like.

DT: I think I spent my first year there -- as Lori Bannai, Professor Bannai is present, I don't know if I should admit this -- but I spent my first year wondering why I was there. 'Cause if this was what it was about, I'm thinking, "I'm out of here." And I sort of wrestled with it for a full year, and I'm glad I didn't decide to leave. But it wasn't what I was expecting. I was studying contract law and property law, and I was really interested in the other stuff, community organizing and some of the issues that were going on. And I'm learning these nuts and bolts things, trying to learn how to reason, whatever. But I stuck it out, and then after the first year, I started volunteering at the Asian Law Caucus and doing some other things. So that became, it became more relevant, then, at that point. And I'm glad, of course, I continued.

TI: Now, do you remember studying Korematsu when you were in law school?

DT: Yeah, that was the third year, every law student has to read these cases. And, of course, you're reading about the experiences of our own families. But they did -- what Korematsu is taught for is the power of the President, that in time of war, to issue executive orders governing civilian populations, basically. It's taught as the authority of the President to make such sweeping decisions, which, in ordinary times, in peace times, the President would not have authority. But it certainly doesn't, didn't go into the experience of our families at all, and what had happened. And so, you know, I felt that the Korematsu case came out wrong, but there's nothing we can do about it, right? And let's move on. And I didn't think we'd ever have the opportunity -- you know, it was the furthest thing from my mind that we would actually get to meet Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi, and Min Yasui, let alone do anything about these ancient historical cases.

TI: Good. So let's move to after law school. So what did you do after you graduated from law school?

DT: So I got a fellowship through the Legal Services Corporation called the Reginald Heber Smith Fellowship. And these were fellowships given out to encourage people to do poverty and civil rights law. And it was done at a time when there weren't... the origins of that particular fellowship was to encourage people to go into that area. But by the time I came in, the Legal Services Corporation had opened offices in every major city. I was just placed, placed in San Jose, and took advantage of the opportunity to begin to work with the San Jose, Santa Clara County area community.

TI: And it seemed like something that followed from that was the Asian Law Alliance?

DT: Yeah. I had had experience doing community work in Oakland, and I knew how to write, for instance, grants, because that's one of the things I did. I had experience in organizing programs and in budgets and this sort of thing, and then I was volunteering at the Asian Law Caucus while I was in law school. And I thought, well, this is something that could be duplicated in the San Jose area. And I started working with Santa Clara law students. And I had added incentive, because I met my bride-to-be, Suzanne Ah-Tye, she was a law student at University of Santa Clara. And there was a group of other students that were the Asian American Law Students Association at Santa Clara. And they were really committed, and to do something similar to forming the Asian Law Caucus, similar to the Asian Law Caucus, but in Santa Clara County. And so we formed the Asian Law Alliance, which is staffed by, I think, five lawyers now, does lots of work representing immigrants on civil rights issues, housing issues, immigration issues in Santa Clara County and that Silicon Valley area. And it's a stereotype that everybody there is wealthy and rich and successful, but for Asian Americans, there's a huge population of recent immigrants, it has all the problems of any immigration population. And the Asian Law Alliance has provided a much needed service. So I helped to organize that.

TI: Well, so here's an observation. As we've been talking, it's like you are the serial nonprofit entrepreneur in terms of starting these things up. The Asian Health Services, I think you mentioned a couple other ones, too, the Asian... oh, there was another one, I wrote it down. And then here's another one, the Asian Law Alliance. I mean, what is it about starting these new organizations that makes it exciting for you, or makes you want to do this?

DT: Well, you know, I was just a part of this. In other words, none of this could have happened without a group of committed people. But the lesson that I got from this is that you don't need tons of people. You need a few committed people who are competent, but people who are dedicated to do some, that focused activity that could create change, and it can be done. I had experience basically doing a few things, and doing them in a way that had some good results. So I was just able to pass that on, but you need a bunch of people. Not a lot, but a bunch of people to be able to pull that together. I was pretty driven by then, but then, so was a lot of people at that time. And again, I think it just reflected the activism of that period. And by the way, this was, I think other interviewees have probably said this, this was happening in every ethnic community. And the Asian Americans certainly were influenced by the civil rights movement, but Latinos, there were a lot of activism going on, the African American community, the environmental movement began, women's rights movements, I think it all... gay rights, I think it all had its beginnings in watching the America being transformed through the civil rights movement. This whole idea that, yeah, we can make a change. We can change this society. And I just feel so lucky to have grown up during that time.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.