Densho Digital Archive - Louise Kashino - Sadaichi Kubota - Bill Thompson Interview (denshovh-klouise

<Begin Segment 3>

TI: I have a question. From the 1983 reunion 'til 1997, when the court-martial was overturned, that's a period of about fourteen years.

SK: That's right.

TI: So it's a long time. During that period, were there times when any of you felt like you should just give up? That it was going to be too hard to do? And if so, how did the others help you to keep going?

SK: I didn't feel in any way that we should give up. I felt right through we should go for it. And of course, Bill came in at the time, so with his research and having friends in Washington, D.C., I think these are the things that really made the thing go. And I give quite of bit of credit to Bill, too, and to Louise, too, for telling her husband to keep on going.

TI: Sadaichi, were there times when you thought that there wasn't much hope? That it would be really, really hard for it to happen?

SK: Yes, at the beginning, when the records department said, "We have no record." The particular section where the 442 records were kept was burned. Somebody had set a fire to that portion. And I thought, "Gee, there goes our chance." So that one particular time I said, "Oh, maybe we don't have a chance." But then we wrote to Patsy Mink, and I think through her insistence, too, that we got the record from Mr. Petree, or something.

BT: Petree, yeah.

SK: Petree, yeah. Because he's the very one that said, "No record. Sorry, but no record." And I felt kind of down on that one, too.

BT: Yeah, I think they had turned down his request for records, I think two times.

SK: That's right.

BT: And I think they also informed Senator Inouye that... well, I don't know what, but the Senator said, "Well, he got word from the military authorities that," you know, "this is it, he won't be able to move."

SK: That's right.

BT: But once we got the records and everything fell into place, then it started moving. And well, having the Senator, especially the Senator's staff, help us, you know, that really counted.