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MN: Now, Rose, you know, today, you're the executive director of the California Forensic Science Institute. Most people are retired by now. They're fishing, you know, or something like that. How do you keep yourself going?

RO: Well, I retired a number of times. I retired from the city before I joined the administration, and then when I left the Clinton administration. An exciting thing was happening. A collaboration of the university, LAPD, and L.A. sheriff to build a crime lab here on this campus, and I couldn't resist. The President wanted to create an institute, and I had relationships with Justice, sheriff, the chief, and he felt that I can bring everyone to work together and make this happen. We've just celebrated nine years, and we're making a significant difference here contributing towards this partnership and the way of research, training, and supporting career development. But I'm not ready to retire.

MN: And, Rose, I know you've always been sort of the, a pioneer. You're usually the only Asian American or the only female in the room. What words of encouragement would you give to, you know, other girls and females coming up, and to Asian Americans?

RO: Couple of things. One, number one, I truly believe that... I had a very wonderful relationship with my father. He was an Issei father, he's stern, but I wasn't afraid of him. He's a good man. And there's a lot of, you know, bluster and everything. And if you're not afraid of your father, you're not gonna be afraid of people in authority, and you can challenge authority, and I have done that over the years. And I also had a very good relationship with a brother, and so I like men, you know. Not just male-female relationships, I like men as friends. I have a lot of, maybe more male friends than female friends. Basketball, go back to basketball, you know. I was a guard. I didn't shoot, I didn't score, so, you know, I didn't really have the bragging rights, but it was okay. My personality suited helping to make it happen, and that's a nice, there's nice carryover in working in collaborations with people so that you have a win-win. When I testified before the Wartime Commission, as I mentioned, this is something Aiko asked me to do last minute, so I didn't matter what I was gonna say. I didn't have time to prepare, so I just shot my mouth off. [Laughs] And I mentioned that internment had some lasting psychological impacts on our community as a whole and as individuals. And that, you know, fishermen, farmers, are all very, very generous of sharing their bounty. And then when you're all, you lose all your possessions and then you are kept, and that there's no way to increase the supply, somehow it becomes a zero sum game. And somebody else's game comes from you.

And the term "crabs in the barrel," I think one of the problems in the community is we could have done much better is, and if you look at other groups and how they can even forget their differences and work together, we spend a lot of time going after each other. And this comes from, I believe, the internment and this whole zero sum concept. Somebody's gain is your loss. And somehow, I recognize that, and I try to stay away from that. And my biggest contributions is not necessarily all the programs and policies that I have been involved in at the White House, in the mayor's office, it's the people that I've had, the young people that I've been able to groom, now people are judges and they're city council members and leaders, business leaders and all. That's why I like to be here at the university. Now I have a, all these young folks, I'm not a good influence. This young lady that started with me in her sophomore year, and she wanted to be a criminalist, she's now a criminalist, but now she wants to be a lawyer. But my opportunity to work with young people has been very gratifying. As you know, I did not work for money. You know, Reggie for ten thousand dollars a year with phenomenal hours, but it's been very rewarding. And when I think about my father's answer to me when I'd ask about internment and he said, "Shigata ga nai," you know, I don't ever want to feel that way. I always want to feel that there's something that could be done. And I feel, in small measure, I have been able to do a bit. And so I feel very good about that. And I say, at times, I know that Takayo's very happy, too.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.