<Begin Segment 16>

BF: Now eventually, it, the first step became the formation of a commission and maybe you could tell us a little bit about how that came about.

CK: Well, I remember when Mike Lowry started to run for congressman, he was on his campaign tour, fundraising, and there was a restaurant -- I don't remember if it was called King Cafe or Quong Tuck at that time. They changed names, but that little restaurant across from Four Seas. Do you remember that? You were too young.

TL: Quong Tuck, it was Q.T.'s at that time.

CK: Quong Tuck?

TL: I think so.

CK: Anyway, he had a fundraiser there and there was an upstairs room and I remember this was the first time I met Mike Lowry. And I remember Henry approaching him and I was a little leery because Henry is pretty confrontational and saying to him, "Mike, will you support a bill for Japanese American redress?" And Mike was a little taken aback at that time, but he sort of indicated he would and he'd look into it. [Interruption] But thanks to him, after he won and was a freshman congressman, he went ahead and did a lot of research and then he did draft this bill, Ruthann Kurose was with him then, and together was working with the Seattle group and this bill, the first redress bill was introduced in Congress in 1979. Just a little prior to that, national JACL had met with the Nikkei congressman and they wanted to move ahead on the bill and Senator Inouye was the one who suggested, well, why don't we go for a commission. Well, as John Tateishi says, you know, he was taken aback because he wanted a bill. And but then all of them, Inouye, Senator Inouye and Congressman Mineta, Congressman Matsui, who was very, very new, agreed. And so that was the way it was set and that bill then passed. Mike's bill then died in committee because it was not brought out. So then the commission bill then became the thing to do. Now the Seattle group -- and here I was in the middle of this group that was so anti-commission -- they said, "It's ridiculous. Everybody knows it was wrong. Why do we have to have a commission to determine if a wrong was done?" But see, the point of it was that unless you have an official body declaring it, that, and then if they come out with a remedy, how much easier then it becomes to go through Congress. A direct bill like Mike's and what the Seattle group wanted would have gotten nowhere. I mean, let's face it. We realize now with all the political kinds of things that have to be done that that would have, it would have died and there wouldn't have been much chance. But it was because of the commission and testimonies, and the report that they came out with, that then you had a congressional appointed body -- I mean, people like Goldberg and Fleming -- and very distinguished people saying that this was wrong and this book, the report and then the recommendation of the $20,000. So that gave it, that gave it the stamp of approval kind of thing and it was very, very helpful. Without it I don't think a bill would have gone through. What did I start to say now... my mind went on to commission.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.