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MN: I was gonna ask you about the JACL because when Rabbit came out, there was a feeling within the JACL because I was working at the Pacific Citizen at the time, that this was an anti-JACL movie. How did you feel about those accusations?

CO: Like I say, I admit that that is a point that we had made in the thing. But we came to that conclusion from doing a lot of research, from talking to a lot of people about this business, and that it was one of the central facts about the camp situation, that JACL was influential. They had offices in Washington, D.C. and all that, and that they also had their books and their spokespersons out there. So we just felt that another side of that should be presented. And when people, like in Q&A, I would say to people, "Well, you know, that's a very small part of our movie. Our movie is really about the government's acts and not really about JACL." But I know that a lot of them took it rather personally.

MN: In fact, I think there was so much discussion within the JACL regarding Rabbit, they invited you to the JACL Tri-District in Salt Lake City, which I was there also. How did you feel about accepting that invitation and how do you think that session went?

CO: I have no qualms about talking about all this. We accepted most invitations that we got; they just didn't invited us very much. [Laughs] But I knew that there would be people there who were friends of mine, especially from the Seattle area. So I didn't think that we were being thrown into a cave of lions, an arena. So also, by that time, I felt that I had a pretty good firm grasp on the history and the facts and all this sort of thing, that I could probably answer whatever they felt like throwing at me. So I was, I didn't feel like I was going to be totally humiliated by them or something. But there were some irritable old men at that thing. The thing is, they didn't do their homework either. Well, what did they know about all these things? I don't know. But when one of them said, "What did you ever do for redress?" And I said, "Well, I worked for ten years with the Seattle Redress Committee, and I was a named plaintiff in this lawsuit," and all that. And so he sort of got caught trying to humiliate me. I had my bona fides or whatever, so too bad.

MN: I remember the session went very well for you guys, you and your sister.

CO: Yeah, because there were a lot of young people there, and so we had a lot of stuff to talk about, yeah.

MN: Now, in your DVD that you are issuing now, there's an extra portion on there.

CO: Yes, there's a lot of extra stuff. I said, "I'm going to throw the kitchen sink into as much space as we have on this thing. We'll just put in stuff."

MN: And one of your new editions is an interview with John Tateishi, who was then the National Executive Director of JACL. Now, was it difficult to get an interview with him?

CO: I recall that, well, that's in San Francisco. So like we didn't have to set up some elaborate scheduling or anything like that, and he was very cooperative. I don't recall that he was hesitant or anything. So we went into the JACL office and just filmed him there. And I thought that John is a pretty intelligent, articulate person, so I felt free to ask him anything. I was very curious about particularly what he could tell me about Mike Masaoka. And I thought he said bunch of fairly revealing things about Mike. I also know that he had to tiptoe through some things and I respect him for speaking to us, first of all, and that he even went as far as he did. And I certainly got the impression from him that Masaoka himself was a somewhat conflicted person. I kind of remember where he said that he thought that at one point, Mike was ready to say a few apologetic things about his role and about the JACL's role. And John thought that he was gonna get up, I think, at one of the JACL conventions, I'm not sure, to say a few things about this but it didn't happen. So either Mike -- now, this is my impression of what John told me so it's already pretty far afield from Mike himself -- but that either people told him not to do it, that it wasn't a good thing to do or that he decided that maybe he wouldn't do that. And there is that one remark, and I said, "Gee, he would have done the community a lot of good had he done that." John said yes, he thought that would have been a good thing. Well, anyway, that was very interesting, that he said that there were many among that group that had regrets about how it all, fallout from all that stuff. But he said they were really green at the time and he felt that they were exploited by those government agencies and such. That's probably true; probably true. But Masaoka, now, he's a little different, but I don't want to go into all that right now, right here. [Laughs]

MN: Well, what about the reaction from the non-Nikkei community to Rabbit? How has that been?

CO: Well, who would say anything except somebody who had something positive to say, pretty much? So it's still selling, there are individuals and schools and libraries and universities and all sorts of places. I still get a couple of orders or three or four orders a week for Rabbit, so it lives on. And like this last week I got an order from Tokyo University and another one from a Taiwanese library, they wanted to use it for their classrooms or something. So it's gotten around. And it's been shown on television with voiceover in Germany and in France, Israel, I think in Brazil. I don't know, it's just gone out all over the place. And broadcast, Japan, on their television.

MN: Do you know what the reception in Japan was like?

CO: I really don't. Except that some schoolteachers use it. And when I went to Japan on vacation once, Aiko told me, "Oh, you should look up so and so," so I just called a few people to say that, "Aiko told me to say hello." And they immediately asked me if I would like to come and lecture to their students. So I went to about four different universities just like that and talked to students. I mean, every little encounter helps.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.