<Begin Segment 15>

MN: Thank you. Is there anything else you want to add?

RO: Oh, I could, but you know what? People got to go. I wanted to say something about my dad, and I said something about Dad, and that's good enough. He just had a lot of bluster. You heard my earlier stories about, yeah, so...

MN: He passed away when you started in the mayor's office.

RO: You know, I have to tell you -- I'm just talking, you know -- they come from Japan, right? I mean, when the emperor's carriage goes by, they have to hit the ground, right? So then when the prince comes to Los Angeles on their first trip and I'm invited to be a guest at the Music Center and go through the line, and my mother along with all these Issei women outside waving flags. So it's been a long, long distance that our families traveled.

MN: Did they know you were inside?

RO: Oh, yeah. My mother knew I was. So they don't know a lot about what I do, but then they'll hear.

MN: Oh, yeah, that's quite an honor to meet the emperor.

RO: But I don't know whether I told you about, but I'm willing to say things that are not, not necessarily welcome. You know, I had the opportunity to meet with Nakasone, prime minister, and at a time where there was a lot of anti-Japanese sentiments, whether it was around imports or buying up all this real estate in downtown. And I told them that they need to be mindful. Mindful of eroding the goodwill that we've earned over many years of hardship and sacrifice.

MN: Do you remember what his reaction to that was?

RO: He listened, but I will say this: at the time, I was vice chair of the corporate board for United Way. And we, at that time, started reaching out to -- with the mayor's help -- Japanese business executives who ordinarily were not joining those types of boards. And they began making contributions to the campaign.

MN: The campaign to United Way.

RO: For United Way, yeah. Part of -- since we're going backwards -- part of why I've been able to say things where typically Japanese Americans are not outspoken, I think it's also a creature of internment. And 'cause it turns everything upside down, and the parents become not in charge, they rely on their students -- their students, their children to be their voice. And I think my older sister, the birth order, older sister and brother, they're more traumatized because they gave up a lot. I was so young, I was four, so, you know, to me, it was an adventure as long as you're there with your parents. But when you come back, then you need to, to talk to some public official about this, that, or whatever. They give me the phone. And the story that they always talk about is my job was to make the sandwiches for lunch. And one day, I was trying to make sandwiches, and there wasn't enough bologna to make six sandwiches. So I go back to the store, and I tiptoe up to the butcher's counter -- this is old days -- and I took the bologna and I went, "This is not enough bologna to make six sandwiches." And so he gave me enough, and I went home. Probably it was fine. But they would send me on these missions. And so I think the advocacy somehow, I don't know.

MN: But, I mean, you know, when you were in the mayor's office and you were getting all this pressure from everybody else to accept the city park instead of Manzanar, weren't you ever afraid you were gonna get fired?

RO: That's what I said earlier is that once you reach that threshold and you know that that's gonna happen next, he took away authority, starts taking away projects, start denying access to the mayor, just one thing or another, and then moved us out, I can't remember, to the fifteen floor where I had this huge, spacious mezzanine suite. But once you decide that, "Hey, that's okay, you can have my job." It's, there's nothing left. And it has less to do with Manzanar, I don't know, probably some of my pride and values. It's that East L.A. or whatever it is. But I'm gonna win.

MN: And you did.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.