<Begin Segment 15>

SY: Can you talk a little bit about what some other things that you...

GN: Well, one of the things was the 100th Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and the MIS were never thanked or recognized by the state legislature, California legislature, and so in 2002 we organized an event for them to come to the state capitol and to be recognized. And so we had this elaborate program that took place in June of 2002 to do just that. And I was very proud that we were able to do that, and the ceremony was very touching in that many of the people who were in the audience, in the gallery, were in tears as the program proceeded.

SY: And you had a family member in the, in the 100th or 442nd?

GN: I have an uncle in Hawaii that was in the 442nd in the E Company. Actually, he served with Bob Ichikawa that recently passed away. Senator Inouye was in the E Company as well.

SY: And did you have a relationship with this uncle? Do you, have you met him since he, he lived in Hawaii? He's no longer living, I assume?

GN: No, he's still living.

SY: Oh, he's still living. So when you...

GN: Yeah, so when we have our reunion or when we go to Hawaii for a visit we get to see him.

SY: Talk about it, how nice. And you were able to get funding for the 100th also? Was that another...

GN: In 2000, yeah, it was in year 2000, I was able to get five hundred thousand dollars for the 100th, 442, MIS Memorial Foundation. That was the name of the organization, the foundation at that time.

SY: And that was responsible for building the memorial in Little Tokyo?

GN: No, no. It had to do with the education program. The memorial was already built.

SY: I see.

GN: And then they changed their name to Go For Broke Education Foundation, and this time I was able to get a million dollars for them. Now, had they kept the same name I don't think they would've gotten the million, but they changed the name and so...

SY: [Laughs] I see. And some other things that had to do with names, talk a little bit about the changing of the highway sign in, from the, well, it's the...

GN: Sadao Munemori sign?

SY: Yes.

GN: Yeah, well, there's four signs at the 105-405 interchange, altogether there's four signs. And it says Sadao Munemori Memorial Interchange, I believe is the name, but nobody knows who he is except for a few of us who have some history background about the 100/442. And so here, one day we're, my wife and I went on vacation to Hawaii, we called a cab to go to LAX, and the cab driver sees that sign and says, "Oh, another politician," so I had to explain to him that's not a politician. So in the meantime I got a, we got a call from Carl, who was part of the Sadao Munemori chapter of the veterans' organization about putting a sign underneath, and I had the same idea about putting the sign underneath that says, Medal of Honor, World War II. So I had organization support and we put in a written request to have that sign put in, and you probably saw the letter in that album. I thought I'd keep that. And we got a letter from Cal Tran indicating that they're gonna put that sign up, so they did.

SY: That's great. And so really at no -- it was, it was an expense to Cal Trans that they put in that sign.

GN: It is, yeah. I did other things that was no longer, well, the other thing was making the State Highway 1 within the L.A. County Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway, and so those signs are privately funded, so Cal Trans said okay 'cause they were having budget problems too. And so that one we working with Jerry Yamamoto, who's the president of the Vietnam Veterans, Vietnam Veterans Association for the South Bay area, and so they were able to raise money for the signs. So the first one that went up was the one -- and what happens there is that it's a state highway but you want to put the sign at a public property, 'cause you can't put those signs on a private property. Well, it turns out that where Best Buy is located right now, the land actually belongs to the city of Torrance but the building is privately owned, and so we were able to put that sign right off of the PCH in Hawthorne. You'll see that sign. That was the first one that went up, and subsequent to that we put one in Hermosa Beach, there's one in the Marina Del Rey area, there's another one in Wilmington, there's another one in Hermosa Beach. I don't know how many we have now, but it's all off of Highway 1, Pacific Coast Highway.

SY: That's great. And this, and Ted Tanouye, that whole process, what was that about, getting the...

GN: Well, there's a National Guard army armory in Torrance, and Ted Tanouye was a Torrance resident. He graduated from Torrance High School, he was a star athlete there, he was also a scholar. And he volunteered to join the army from Jerome camp, and so we felt that he should be recognized and so we thought that the National Guard armory would be an appropriate place for that. And given that I was the chair of the budget subcommittee on state administration, which is the largest of the five subcommittees, I had the military department under my purview, which is the National Guard. So the adjutant general of the National Guard would come and see me at budget time, and so I asked General Monroe, "What are the chances of renaming the National Guard armory after Ted Tanouye?" And I explained to him about Ted Tanouye. He's the only Torrance resident to ever receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, and we thought that it'd be an appropriate place to rename that armory. And so his response to me was, "It's done."

SY: Gosh. That's, how does that make you feel, though?

GN: It felt great, I mean, to get that kind of response.

SY: But also --

GN: There's no question asked after I provided all the information, the reason why.

SY: But in terms of your kind of a legacy, really, that you've, had you not been in office when you were there probably would not be these permanent markers.

GN: And I tell people that, "If you're not at the table you're not gonna be heard." I mean, that's kind of a generalized statement. You could get certain things done, but it makes it more difficult and sometimes you can't get it done if you're not at the table. But the first time was, relative to something like that was, and I had to run for it, and that is to become the representative of several cities -- actually, there were twenty-two cities -- to be the alternate on the MTA board. And when I became the alternate of the MTA board -- and we had yet to run for that position like you're running for city council, and I came in first, but you have to have more than fifty percent of the votes in order, and so what happens is that you got to confer with people who come in second, third or fourth and gain their support. So the person who came in third I had already talked to ahead of time, and she told me that if she comes in third and I'm first that she'll throw her votes behind me, so that's what happened. I became, had enough votes to be the representative for these twenty-two cities that we're supposed to represent.

SY: And when was that? That was...

GN: 1997.

SY: Okay, so before your first --

GN: And so when I became the alternate board member, before I was sworn in, Yvonne Brathwaite Burke invited me to a committee meeting that she hosted, and that committee meeting -- and I told her I'm not sworn in yet, but she said that doesn't matter, "I want you to attend this meeting because you're gonna have to know some things that go on at the committee level before you're sworn in, anyway" -- so the CEO of the MTA just in passing mentioned that they're gonna eliminate the station, at that time they were gonna put up the red line above the rail, the light rail, that will go to East L.A. The plan has changed a lot now, but at that time it was the rail line, light rail that would be running from East L.A. to downtown L.A., but they said that they're gonna eliminate the station at Little Tokyo, and she just said that in passing. And so what happened was we got this booklet that has all the home phone numbers of the MTA board members as well as the senior staff members, so I called her that night and said, "Is it true that they're gonna eliminate that?" And she says yes, and I say, "I have a problem with that. A station such as that means so much economically for Little Tokyo." And so she said that, well, it can be brought up at a subsequent meeting, which I think might've been the board meeting, but I don't remember exactly. Might be another committee but a bigger committee. But in the meantime I contacted senior staff members that, "You people that have not even presented this issue before the Little Tokyo people and you're making this unilateral decision," I said, "that's all wrong." And so we organized people in Little Tokyo to send letters to all the board members on the MTA board and set up a meeting in Little Tokyo, so the JACCC, we held a meeting there and then invited the two senior people from the MTA to testify. And anyway, one of the guys that was testifying was kind of dancing around, wouldn't respond to questions, and so I piped in. I said, "That's exactly what's wrong with MTA is that you don't give a straight answer to a question. You're just dancin' around it, and that's why MTA has such a bad name." And so anyway, what happened was, as a result of that meeting and all the letters that went out, MTA took a position to have the Little Tokyo station.

SY: That's great.

GN: And that was in 1997.

SY: Yeah, that's really great.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.