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MN: Now, when you were helping on the redress effort, you visited at Congressman Rodino's office on a different matter, on immigration. [Interruption] Share with us how that meeting went.

RO: Well, actually, in my work for the city, I would go into Washington from time to time, so it gives me an opportunity to visit or push my agendas, whatever. And one trip, stopped by to see Congressman Rodino, and they were furiously trying to pass some major immigration legislation. This is well after the Reagan administration, which included amnesty. And I stopped by, actually, on redress, but he said to me, "Rose," he says, "we have a stalemate here. Your friends," and he's referring to Maldef, "are not going for any of our language." And I said, "You know, the mood and the climate in Los Angeles is getting very, very hard. INS is just running around stopping anyone, I mean, Japanese tourists in Little Tokyo." And I said, "you know, maybe you need to talk to them and ask them not, 'What do you want?' but, 'What will you be willing to settle for at this stage?'" Any event, that conversation went on, and the laws did go forward, and major changes and overhaul of immigration policy occurred back then, and it was considered difficult there as it is going to be now.

MN: And at the end of the meeting, you brought up redress. And what did --

RO: Well, one of the things he said to me, he said, "Rose," he said, "why aren't our friends, congressmen, not pushing redress?" And I said to him, "Well, as far as the Japanese American members, you know, they are not in safe districts. They're getting backlash, I can read it in the Japanese American newspapers, that they're being targeted by hate-mongers. And so what we need to have is somebody to champion redress that comes from a safe district." So he appointed Barney Frank from Massachusetts, and he moved the measure along.

MN: Now, I'm gonna ask you about Senator Alan Simpson. Earlier you mentioned that you had met him through the Select Commission, and you regularly, when you went to the Hill for your job, you also dropped in on him. And one time, you were looking at this painting.

RO: Yeah, one time I was waiting in his outer office, and he came out, and I had said, "The Grand Tetons." And he said, "How would a big city girl like you know the Grand Tetons?" And I said, "Well, my husband's uncle Fred paints there every summer." And he said, "Not the famous Fred Ochi?" And I said, "Yes." And any event, you know, every chance I got, I would tell him -- 'cause he was the minority whip -- "What are you doing? What can you do?" and all. And he was just very much supportive. He worked with his old friend Norm Mineta, the friendship that began in Heart Mountain, behind barbed wires and maintained through the years. And together, they really helped to make history. I think history is really a personal, personal connections that make the difference. And I wanted to thank him, so I asked Uncle Fred, who's my husband's uncle, whether he would give me a painting, a painting of a red barn in Spencers Mountain, to give to the senator. And I was able to do that on Fred's behalf.

MN: Now, how did you hear that the redress bill had gone to the desk of President Ronald Reagan?

RO: Well, Skip Enders, who worked in judiciary for Rodino called me. I was in the mayor's office and he said, "Rose, the bill has gone to the White House." And at this point, while everyone that has been involved in this effort, we have never really had an indication from the White House what was going to happen. I thought, well, I need to get some information to him. So I raced over to the Pacific Citizen office, where George Johnson was about ready to leave to go to the JACL convention. And I said, "Stop. Find the article, the Orange County Register article about Captain Ronald Reagan." Captain Ronald Reagan presented, posthumously, an award to Sadao Munemori's parents. And I said, "He needs to see this." So I raced over, and George found the article, and I faxed it to a number Skip provided. I said, "Give me somebody that will make certain that it will be put under the President's nose." And at this time, we didn't know whether they'll veto it, let it go into effect, or whether they would have a quiet signing ceremony or big public event. And in a quick minute, we learned that there's gonna be a signing ceremony in the White House and that we were invited. I got the call from Senator Simpson's office, and I went out on a red eye. And that was kind of a very special moment for all of us, so many, so many people who worked on this redress effort. And I was just happy to be a part, and to be in that room. And while I, we were standing and cheering as he was signing, and he goes into his remarks, he mentions my name, "Rose Ochi sent me this article." And he proceeds to read every word, but he changed it. He didn't mention the name of the army captain, and he read the entire text, and then he closes, "And the name of the army captain was Ronald Reagan." So we broke out in applause and cheers, and it was just a very special moment for everyone, and a very, very special moment for me.

MN: I know you said it's a very special moment, but on a personal level, what were your thoughts when you were there, and all the, you know, your parents are already passed away. What were you thinking when the redress bill was actually signed? Do you regret that your parents weren't alive still?

RO: You know, it was a different kind of a relationship with my family. We never really talked about redress, but we, they didn't really, don't even know what I was up to. They knew that I was always busy. The only conversation I had with my father was when I was in law school and I heard about Korematsu case and I mentioned it to him. And I said, "What did you do?" And he said, "Shigata ga nai." And so like probably most parents, they suffered in silence. And they didn't know what I did. They didn't know much about all my activities. I'm not someone that comes home... I didn't, it was, it's not something we really shared. And they know I'm doing stuff because, you know, their friends would say, "Oh, your daughter did this," or, "Your daughter did that." But Rafu made me famous. [Laughs] But what I liked about Rafu best was when I'm a AA basketball star and all, they have my picture there. Because basketball was very important to us.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.