<Begin Segment 28>

MN: Okay. Bob, I know you were really athletic, you were involved in a lot of sports, and you founded SEYO. Can you tell us what SEYO stands for and what it is?

RW: Well, SEYO stands for Southeast Youth Organization, and way back in '63 I got together with a few people in our area, and we had put together a few teams of baseball for the kids from eight to twelve years of age. That's a big spread, but we didn't have many kids. We put together a little league of our own to sort of have a place for the kids to play because as they grew up, they may not be able to play high school ball. So we did it for just Japanese kids in the area and it just has expanded into a youth organization that has over two thousand kids playing now. And we involved all the organizations in the Orange County area to provide the teams and the funding and stuff like that, so it's a very well known group in the area. I was the president the first five years, and then I was getting tired and I told 'em we had to get some new officers and so we went to a rotation system back then so that every organization had to take a turn at president each year. I understand that's still in their system. I'm very proud that we started SEYO for these youth groups, and I still think that's all part of my story of why Jo Ann died, why I was not supposed to be with Madrid. I was supposed to come home, start SEYO to start the Japanese American Korean War Veterans and the Suburban Optimist Club. I was the President of the Japanese American Korean War Vets for the first four years. The Nisei VFW in Orange County was floundering, ready to fold up, and I pretty much got them a headquarters building. We have a building we own that was given to us by another disbanding VFW post. Now that I've written a memoir book, and I wrote a book about the Japanese American Korean War vets, the veterans in the Korean War, all these things just fall right back to Jo Ann's death. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't be here. Who would've formed SEYO? I thought of that, I'm the one that thought of the name, SEYO. I mean, you can ask anybody from our area, did Bob Wada have anything to do with the SEYO or is he just blowing hot air? They'll blow that right out because I worked hard to start all these things, but it all comes back to Jo Ann.

MN: You were also chair of the Japanese American Korean War Memorial Committee. What did the committee do?

RW: Well, what we did was we raised two hundred thousand dollars and built the memorial right here at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, and from there we tacked on to the Vietnam War Memorial, then World War II came in after us and put theirs in there. Now we have the Japanese American National War Memorial Court right here. And then we also raised the money and built a similar memorial listing all the Japanese American names of the guys that were killed in the war in Korea, and we built it between North and South Korea, just to show the Korean people that the Japanese Americans are not bad people that we gave a lot of our blood for them. When you talk to them and they find out Japanese Americans died in Korea and were fighting for the freedom of South Korea, they're astounded. They don't believe it, and they didn't know that Japanese Americans were fighting in the war. I'm just printing a supplement book right now that goes with my main book, Americans of Japanese Ancestry in the Korean War. This supplement lists names of everybody, except the ones we haven't gotten yet, that served during the Korean War, including a lot of women, and we have over five thousand names. And they're listed by name, and that's coming out within the week.

MN: That's a lot of work.

RW: Yeah. So my survival has been very rewarding. End of story.

MN: One last question. 2006, you spearheaded a campaign to get high school diplomas for your brother Hank, sister Helen, and your friend James Sakato. Why was this important for you? It's not your diploma.

RW: Basically, I did it because the state had a new law that allowed granting them the diploma. And, of course, my sister passed away, my brother would never go ask for it, James Sakato was a little older and I knew he wouldn't, and I knew they wouldn't go out and do it themselves and so I just took it on myself to get it for them. And I was fortunately successful and they're happy. And my brother -- he graduated in '45 in Poston -- he goes to the Redlands High School reunions for class of '45. Now he has an official diploma. So I just knew they wouldn't do it, so I knew I had to do it. That was my motive. I think my whole life is I try to satisfy people. I try to do things for people that I think need to be done, and I'm not afraid to work hard to get that, at least I haven't so far. But it's rewarding to me to give something that benefits... I see SEYO people, I see how big SEYO's grown, I mean, it's just mind boggling to see that. And the Korean War Vets are a very big, functioning group.

Like I said, it all boils back to 1950, I don't want to carry this on, but it starts with joining the reserves in high school in 1948 for two years, getting discharged one month before the war starts. I mean, why? I mean, you can say why to everything that's happened in my life, every step of the way. Why did Jo Ann die? Why did I get to see Madrid on the road while there on a break? Why weren't they walking and I couldn't stop and talk to him? But they were sitting on the side of the road on a break. And just one thing after another. How did I just fall into forming SEYO? Why did I start collecting Korean War vets' names years and years ago, and asking myself what am I gonna do with all these names? And then Min Tonai comes, "Hey, I understand you got all these names of Korean War vets." "Yeah," and I didn't even know who Min was. I asked Sam Shimoguchi, "Hey, who is this Min Tonai? He sounds like he's big shot, knows how to get this monument built." Sam asked me, "You don't know who he is?" "No." "He's the president of JCCC." "Gee whiz, I better be nice to him." So those names came in very handy and got us started. So my whole life is, why did I do this, why did this happen, but they all happened, so... that's my life.

MN: Thank you, Bob.

RW: Thank you.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.