<Begin Segment 19>

MA: How do you feel that the hearings, what impact did that have on the redress movement? It seems like people were publicly talking about camp for the first time.

LN: Yes.

MA: What impact did that have on the movement and also on the community?

LN: Oh, it, again, it was this thing about empowerment. It was really something, because once, like they say, once you got them talking, you couldn't stop them. [Laughs] They were so, all that anger came out, all that year of pent-up anger and everything else. So it wasn't just the redress, the reparations that we were fighting for. It was just the satisfaction, I think, of getting out there and letting the government, having a medium by which we can let the government know how we felt. So a sense of empowerment, as I say. And for the women, this whole movement meant a lot of, made a big difference. Because in our group, we used to encourage the women to come out. In fact, in the community meetings, in the big community meetings, like you have some people who are chauvinists, male chauvinism. We used to really come down hard on them, because we would say that all these women, they were coming out, and we don't want any intimidation so they won't be able to speak out. So more and more, that became the norm, and women felt very comfortable and more women started coming out. In fact, it's amazing because when you really come down to it, if this was a revolution or something, women, I tell you, once they get going, it's, they are just terrific. So that's kind of how, where a lot of the women came out. Yeah, it was an exciting time.

MA: And then when, I guess when the Civil Liberties Act passed in the late '80s, how did you feel? What was that like for you, someone who had worked so hard fighting for redress? When it finally passed, what did you think?

LN: Oh, just very excited, of course. [Laughs] I don't know. I can't even, I really can't... I just don't remember. But I know we were very, very happy about that, yeah. I think it was more... again, I think it was the question of empowerment, you know, how Niseis came out, totally different after the hearings, after the whatchacall, and the positive things that came out of it. What was that you said? I forgot, what is that? What was that that came down, you said?

MA: Oh, the Civil Liberties Act?

LN: Oh, yeah, yeah, and things of that nature, which was so good for the people, and especially for the women. Because they came out so strong after all these years of being kind of like oppressed.

MA: Well, it seems like the redress was great, and when that passed and everything. But I think what you're saying, too, is the important thing is what happened along the way, the movement building and the coalition building and the empowerment that happened to get redress.

LN: That's right, yeah. All that was really exciting time, yes.

MA: And what do you see, I guess, is the historical importance of redress, I mean, for other communities, too? It seems like it's just, it's something that other communities can look to or use to fight for their own struggles. What do you think about the historical importance of what you all were fighting for?

LN: Yes. You know, in those days, we used to go out to other communities, to the broader community, the Chicano community, African American community. Not only to share what we were doing, and not only to ask for their support, but also to encourage them to go out there and fight for what was needed in their community. We wanted to encourage them, because it's so important to do that. So we would always try to do that, too.

MA: Yeah, I think redress is important because of the broader ramifications it has on other communities as well.

LN: That's right. Because then again, you're coming down to the empowerment thing, you know. That different communities should have more, should be able to get more and have more of a say, and get more respect from the U.S. government and all that.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.