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TL: Were the hearings a turning point for yourself, too, in terms of your commitment and drive to follow this issue?

CK: Well, as I mentioned, this sort of cathartic time, that it let my emotions out, it was just one more step. A very, very significant step, but one more step into this total commitment to redress which turns out I spent half my life on it. So it was one thing and then when that was finished then there was a hiatus in that we had to wait then for the findings of the commission and in '82, as we're checking our dates now, California, Priscilla Ouchida and Assemblyman Johnson had accomplished a state redress bill which compensated $5,000 for state employees. So we saw that and we saw the reports coming in and saw in the PC that they had succeeded in that. So I was sitting in the office with Karen Seriguchi and I said, "If California can do it, why not Washington? Should we go ahead?" And she said, "Why not?" So then that's where I contacted Ruth Woo because I knew she had good connections down in Olympia and then I called Priscilla Ouchida and said, "How did you do it? Give us some help." And she told us how they did it and so we took off on that drive to get the state employees, and that started with Ron Sims and Tim Gojio and Ruth Woo down in Olympia. And then they asked me to come down there, so I met with them and they said, well, they can do the legislative part of it, the inside work, but they'll need community support, the lobbying and JACL, and I guess, you know, that's what I mean in terms of, "Yeah, I guess we'll commit." So then we went back. I went back and got the chapter to support it. But you know, like anything, there is a lot of enthusiasm at the beginning, but as it goes on, it gets harder and harder. But anyway, that, shall I go into how the state bills and the...

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.