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MA: Can you talk about his influence on you politically, on your political consciousness and development, the influence of Malcolm X?

YK: Yeah. Well, I had never heard anyone so knowledgeable about his own history or who was such an awesome speaker, who was really such a powerful person. I mean, from that moment, I wanted to learn everything I could about what black people have gone through, that I never heard, I don't remember, anyway, hearing in class about slavery. Maybe you heard the word "slavery" but nothing of what slavery was about. And where he sort of opened the door to let us know that there's so much about American history we knew nothing about. And I think everyone who was there, black or white, who listened to Malcolm, also realized what little they knew of American history. They all thought the same way I did, that we must learn. I mean, learn, too, that not everything is taught to us in school. It's up to us to find out.

MA: Did he make you think about your own history, Japanese American history as well?

YK: Oh, yes. And he knew a lot about Asian American history. He said to the whole group, he said, "You know, Japan is lucky that it had never been colonized" -- until World War II -- "like all the other Asian countries." Like Vietnam and all those small countries, even China was colonized. Korea and all the Asian countries, even Okinawa. He said, "The reason Japan was not colonized was because Japan had nothing, nothing to really give in resources. So Japan was lucky that other countries left Japan alone." Japan just had nothing there. And in fact, that's how come Japan started to go to other countries and do the wrong thing, attacking other countries for resources just as Europeans were doing. And Malcolm really knew a lot about Asian history. He loved Mao because here a leader of such a huge country as China, that Mao, the most important thing in Mao was the workers. Because just to feed that big country, I mean, that was the most important thing for Mao. And Malcolm, knowing that, said he could see what a good leader Mao was. Because feeding a country is an important thing. And that many, many countries with whatever resources they have in their own country, they can't even feed their own. And then he said, "Look at a country like United States. They have a lot of resources, but they act like they don't and they go into all of the other countries and take their resources." And how important resources are. I mean, Malcolm was a great teacher.

And then after he asked me, would I like to attend his classes regularly, and so I did. And oh my god. I mean, you learn so much. Every time you go, you learn. And, I mean, he was such a wonderful person. He came to know our little kids, and oh, our kids just loved him. And I remember once our kids said they wanted to get him a present or something. And they said, "Can we get him something as a gift?" And I said, "Well, I don't know what, but let's look in the stores and see." And one day we saw... it's the perfect gift. The kids said, "Let's get this" -- this was in a five and dime, I think. It was a, I don't know if it was made out of rubber or what. It was a whale, and it said, "To a whale of a man." Isn't that great? [Laughs] "To a whale of a man." And the kids said, "Let's get that, let's get that." And so that's what we had the kids give. They wanted to give it to him, actually give it. But that day that we saw him, his guards were in the car, and he was already in the car and we couldn't get near the car. And they didn't want the kids to come to the car. They said, "As a mother, you give it to us." I couldn't even give it to Malcolm. So I felt... but I'd like to have seen his face when it said, "To a whale of a man." But I had to just take it to one of his guards and give it to him, and I'm sure they gave it to him.

MA: So it sounds like he had quite an impact on you and your family.

YK: Oh, yes.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.