Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Ryo Imamura Interview
Narrator: Ryo Imamura
Interviewers: Stephen Fugita (primary), Erin Kimura (secondary)
Location: Olympia, Washington
Date: August 3, 1999
Densho ID: denshovh-iryo-01-0006

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EK: Do you see in the past that -- well, I'm kind of wondering if you think your relatives saw it as fulfilling a need to the people, or do you think they also saw kind of that social activist, kind of social justice element in what they were doing? You know in terms of giving these workers kind of a voice. Or do you think it was mainly just fulfilling the needs of the people -- this is, you know, how to serve the people best.

RI: Well, I think both of those dovetail quite nicely.

EK: Uh-huh.

RI: When you're concerned about a people who are underprivileged and discriminated against, and this is your community, and your heart is awakened, and you'd look to it for your leadership -- that the social activism part, I think, comes out. So both of my grandfathers -- and I shouldn't discount what my grandmothers did too, you know, they're often not given the headlines, but... there was a film that just came out of Hawaii called The Six Famous Women of Hawaii, and my grandmother was one of them. Just for her kind of feminist ideas. She wore a, as a bishop's wife, usually they wore this real tight little kimono, walked in little steps, following behind her husband. She wore these kind of like a southern belle type of clothes. Then when they had gatherings she would say, "Oh, let's all dance." She would be out there and speak up on public issues and things like that. My grandmother on this side also was very famous for outspokenness about things. And so they formed very good teams. So both are very highly respected and looked up to, both in their times, and even now. And again, I think that times, times produces greatness in people too. Somebody has to come forth and they were very fortunate to be in those positions also. And they stayed for a long time. Nowadays ministers move around every six years. But my father was -- grandfather was bishop for thirty-two years. And built, I think thirty, thirty-eight temples in Hawaii. I think there's only been one temple built since he died in 1932. So that's why his big statue's still in front of the headquarters and why the gymnasium/auditorium complex is called Imamura Hall, is because of that influence. And my maternal grandfather, was I think from almost the turn of the century until he died in '47, I believe -- that's forty-seven years of, of working every day for the community. I, I remember a story and I forget, I think it's one of my aunts told me that the governor of California -- I can't remember his name -- back in the, around the First World War times, very cruel towards the Japanese, always trying to pass different ordinances against them, especially hurting the farm workers. And so, my grandfather was a very passionate man. Got so worked up he says, he got tired of writing letters I guess, getting no response. So I understand he -- I don't know if he meant it or not -- he got his car, the capitol was Los Angeles then. He says, "I'm driving to Los Angeles," right, "To go see the governor." And everybody's going, "No, no, no, no, no." And so he was going out on the highway -- and it's not like I-5, it's those old highways -- and he turned the corner too fast, he was in such haste. It was one of those Model Ts with very high center of gravity. So it tipped over into a ditch and fell on top of him. And he was up there, you know, swearing up a storm. "Get this off of me. I gotta go." By the time people saved him, his anger had dissipated, he could just laugh about it. But it's that kind of very humanness and passion, I'm sure, that drove them. And, this is all old talk, this is going back sixty, seventy years now. And so we're only left with the bare outline of things now. Of course we fill in the rest through our own imagination or our own idealism. So what the true details were I can't say. This is before I was born. But this is kind of how I get inspired, by creating these -- remembering what I want to, and using my grandparents and my parents as my inspiration for what I do.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.