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TI: Well, yeah, I forgot about that, but yeah, you were very active with the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation also.

TO: Right.

TI: So there's, it seemed like this there's this pattern where you really are trying to put these -- what's a good word -- anchors or these strong markers for the community so that there is a legacy going into the future.

TO: Yeah. And I can't put it in nice words like you can, but I guess that's pretty much it.

TI: Well, so on behalf of the community, Tosh, it does make a difference, and so thank you for doing that.

TO: Well, you're... I got more satisfaction out of it than you would think. It's been very rewarding. And I think the most rewarding part of it is meeting all the good people that think the same way you did. It's just been a wonderful, wonderful experience for me and involved in all these things. But as you know, the original thoughts of the memorial in Washington, D.C. was for the veterans. And, of course, Congress wouldn't go for that, they said, "We've got enough veterans memorial in Washington, D.C." But fortunately, the redress bill had just passed, so Congress was very aware of what happened to Japanese Americans, so they bought the picture of the loyalty of all Japanese Americans during the Second World War, so that's the way it started. But I was very much involved in helping the, we call ourselves the Go for Broke Veterans Association, getting the bill passed through Congress to get a memorial in Washington, D.C. And then when it became a, for all Japanese Americans during World War II, then we turned it over to another organization because we didn't have the resources to do the big, big fundraising, as you know. And they did a great job in that. But we were, I was very much involved with Bob Sato in raising the funds here in the Pacific Northwest, which, just very thankful to the community that they supported the way it did. We were assigned $500,000 for the Pacific Northwest, to raise. And then, of course, the cost went up so they raised it to $700,000. But eventually we came out with about $1.4 million, so that was really, really rewarding to see that kind of support that we got. I think that Bob Sato, he had a lot to do with that. He was a great, great guy that, really a good fundraiser and a good leader. When you're assisting him, you're busy all the time. Because he says, "Tosh, how about this? How about that?" [Laughs] I said, "Okay." Anyway, he was a great guy to work with. And I'm very elated that we did what we did in that respect.

TI: Good. That was a nice acknowledgement for Bob.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.