<Begin Segment 23>

TI: Well, let's talk a little bit about your brother Edison, because in Japanese American history he's quite well-known, that later on he is kind of commonly known as one of, if not the first, one of the first to propose redress for the Japanese Americans who were put in camps.

KK: Well, he said that, he was still in Crystal City in when he said that.

TI: So tell me about that. So early on, as a young, as a teenager, he thought that something had to happen?

KK: Yeah. He says, "This is against our Constitutional rights. We're American citizens, and as American citizens we should not have been put into camps, one." Once, he says, if you were in L.A. and you were taken into prison and they found out that you were not supposed to be in prison, when they let you go they give you money and they give you a letter of pardon, and they clear your record. "We need that," he said. "We need that."

TI: But then lots of Niseis...

KK: Said no.

TI: Well, no, a lot of Niseis probably thought the same thing, but your brother was one of the, was the only, or one of the few to actually try to do something about it.

KK: Right.

TI: So what was different about Edison that made him take that extra step? Because, you know, again, Nisei say this was wrong, it shouldn't have happened...

KK: Edison is Edison. You know, he just was one of those people. All my, I guess, everybody in our family was different, and everybody had kind of a way of... nobody was shy to speak in front of people or be part of a group and be an officer or anything. Edison, Bobby, Ernie, all of them. So, I'm not, I wasn't surprised.

TI: So tell me again, what made him, I mean, you were just three years apart, so he was your, directly your oldest brother, so you were pretty close. And you said people in your family were all outspoken, but was there something different, or what was the special quality about Edison that, that made him do what he did? 'Cause he was outspoken. He spoke, he was at, he gave speeches, he swayed a national organization, the JACL, to put this on their agenda, so it was more than just wanting it. He had to have something to make these things happen.

KK: That was his personality. I mean, even in high school he was a president. Okay, he comes out of, out of camp, he goes to a high school and they send him to, oh, where was it? Somewhere in Colorado, to a big gathering of young people. He ends up being president of that group. And he'd just come out of camp. And then he comes back, and he graduates and he joins the Navy. But in the meantime, he's talking to these people in JACL. He's only nineteen and they want to make him president of their chapter. And he's talking about redress and reparation, and that's when they said, "Don't talk about that now." But he said no. And that's, when he was nineteen, that's when he first, and that one JACL meeting, that's the first time he talked to JACL about it. And they said, "Don't talk about it."

TI: And why did they tell him not to talk about it then?

KK: Because they were just getting settled and they didn't think that should be brought up. But he kept talking to people about it.

TI: And so when did he make the big sort of speech, or when did it really come out?

KK: 1972.

TI: And this was at a national convention, JACL?

KK: It was in Washington, D.C. national convention.

TI: And what did you and the other siblings think when your brother goes out there on a national level asking for redress and reparations for...

KK: We think it was good. We encouraged him.

TI: Because most Japanese Americans at this point did not think it was a good idea.

KK: Still didn't, yeah. Well, they were beginning to, you know, they were beginning to. But, see, in the meantime, he'd been talking to, he kept talking to young people, and especially people who were going to, who said they were interested in the law. Then he would really corner them and start talking to them, and talking about -- he wanted to be a lawyer. And he had a heart attack when he went to law school, so then that ended that, but he talked to all these young people he knew were going to be lawyers, and said, "One of these days, you gotta bring this up."

TI: Do you know if he talked to any of the coram nobis lawyers?

KK: I think he did. I think he did.

TI: Now as Edison is proposing this, do other family members get involved in the redress movement?

KK: No. Well, yes, my sister Hana and Amy. Those two did, but nobody else. In fact, Ernie was against it, kept telling to, "Hush up, hush up, you shouldn't be doing this," and that and that, and it wasn't until Edison died and then they turned to Ernie, and then Ernie, you'd think he was the one that had thought of it. [Laughs]

TI: So Ernie was a 442 veteran, and he was initially opposed to this. He didn't think it was a good idea.

KK: Yes. He didn't think it was a good idea.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.