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TI: So, Min, today is Monday, July 18, 2011, and this is your second interview and we are in Los Angeles. On camera is Tani Ikeda, and I'm the interviewer, Tom Ikeda, and so, Min, I'm gonna actually start with something I saw about two years ago. I was, I was actually channel surfing, and I'm a big sports fan and I was looking at ESPN and they ran this video special at Santa Anita, and I think the way they prefaced it was that they were shooting for the Breeder's Cup or something and they came across a group. And you were part of that group, and so can you describe a little bit about what that video was and how that came about?

MT: See, I'm part of the Japanese American Korean Veterans, an organization of Korean veterans, people in the Korean War era, includes people that didn't serve in the war and were other places like Germany or even Panama Canal. But we, because of just circumstances, luck of the draw, they ended up going where they were and some of us ended up in Korea. Well, the thing that happened is that every so often we go to the Breeder's Cup time 'cause it's a special time and we have a, we sponsor an outing there. We have a luncheon and people pay, pay the money, they go in, and we go in there. And part of that is a tour of the stables, 'cause that's the only thing remaining of Amache, I mean, I'm sorry, of Santa Anita Assembly Center that we lived in. And I'm one of the few guys that are in our group that was in Santa Anita and also have a pretty good memory of Santa Anita. So anyway, we were all set to do that and we had a tour that we're gonna have and I'm gonna narrate some of it, and we have other people, like Horace Yoshinaga, he was gonna narrate one of the rides. So anyway, we were there and were preparing for it when we get a call saying that this fellow from ESPN is doing a, a shoot and was talking about, I forgot his name, memory's gone, the...

TI: Seabiscuit? Or the...

MT: No, no, the Sansei jockey.

TI: Oh, the jockey, that's right. Yes.

MT: Yeah, they're gonna do a thing on him, and they were talking about, then they found out that we were gonna go over there, so therefore they decided to incorporate us into part of that. And so they called us and they asked us if we were willing to do that, and I said sure, we'll be willing to do that. Bacon Sakatani, who is, was the person who was, he then asked me to help him with that, so I helped him be kind of the co-chair of that organization, of that particular outing, and so we did that. And I didn't know exactly what they're gonna ask or anything, they just asked for some people that had been in Santa Anita. In the meantime there were other people that joined us who were not, who ended up knowing about Santa Anita being there, and one of 'em happened to be June Aochi... now I forgot her name. She used to be, was Nisei Week queen a long time ago, and she was in Santa Anita as a youngster. She was probably ten years old or so. And she was gonna be interviewed, as well as her brother, who was a little older than I am and he was gonna be interviewed too. So there were several of us that were interviewed in that particular segment of ESPN. Some of the people, of course, didn't want to go on TV and be interviewed, so they declined. So that's how I got on that TV, and it was interesting because we were trying to, we were going there for an outing and suddenly this thing appeared. And it was gonna be ESPN, so I looked at it as an opportunity to maybe educate the American public to do this, not knowing that it was gonna be nominated for the Emmy. They didn't win, but --

TI: Oh, I didn't realize it was even nominated.

MT: It was nominated for an Emmy.

TI: Do you have a sense of how many people saw this clip?

MT: I'm not sure. You might be able to go to ESPN and find that. I'm not sure. But I, but it was seen and was nominated for an Emmy. It was, I believe it was important for us to do that.

TI: It was, the production values and how they did it was very well done. I was very, I was very impressed, thinking it was, it came out of their sports, or ESPN, which is traditionally sports, it really had a strong human touch to it. I thought it was very well done.

MT: At my age my memory's gone, but I, her name is June Aochi Burke. [Laughs]

TI: And what was the reaction when it was aired? Did you hear from other people about the airing of the ESPN segment?

MT: No. I'm a little bit feisty and I don't, I don't care -- care meaning I care that it's being said, I didn't care that people might misunderstand and say something or report something that was wrong 'cause I would rebut them each time. One other thing is you can always say I was there, don't tell me what it's not like. I was there. I knew what it was about. So that's why I was able to, I didn't mind, and in fact, I was happy to be able to be interviewed for that.

TI: How about within the community? Did people within the community see it and comment?

MT: Yeah. Some people did, not everybody. Some people saw it. There's a certain amount of, in the Nisei community, they wouldn't say anything anyway if they saw it. They may say something to you personally, but not to, not in a public way. So I understood that and that's fine. Long as we were able to get this down on tape is, is a bit of a, trying to show history, for what it was for someone that was there instead of someone researching it and coming up with their conclusions. Too often I see so many things that were written that were not right, that were wrong, whether it's my camp, Amache, or Santa Anita or anywhere else, or even people that were there, because the perspective is different from my perspective. And I understand that.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.