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SY: And so what, so what is your focus now in your life?

GN: Right now I am involved with, actively involved with six different nonprofit organizations and trying to help raise money for them, most of them. I may have taken on a little bit too many, especially after I became chair of the Go For Broke. There's a lot of work to do there.

SY: And what is your hope for Go For Broke? What do you, what would you like it to be? What would you, what does the work entail?

GN: Well, there's a lot of things. One is professionalism that needed to be instilled within the organization. Needed to be managed better as an organization. They have to raise money. And one of the changes in direction, I would say, is -- and we haven't taken an official position, but it's something we're still exploring -- and that is instead of building a new building from ground up, my preference is to look for an existing facility that could be refurbished. For two reasons, number one, the veterans are dying off. Why have a building that's gonna be completed once they're all gone? Why don't we get something decent going before they're all gone, you know? They should be able to see something built. And so we're exploring that now and hopefully one facility we looked at will come about. And then the other one is the amount of funding that you have to have for a new building versus refurbishing an existing building. When I say refurbish I don't mean just cosmetic, but it would probably take a certain amount of detail work that needs to be done too, but I think it's a better choice than starting something from the ground up.

SY: And so in small ways how do you feel you can impact, other than the building? And do, are there other ways that you feel you can impact organizations like Go For Broke? I mean, what are some of the issues that you fight for, that you continue to fight for?

GN: Well, I think the issues that you have to deal with, one is, like, educating, education. I think there's an extensive amount of oral history that's been recorded now that's, but those things need to be properly catalogued, digitized, you need to work with the local university so people could do some research, and then providing workshops for teachers to teach the subject matter at local schools. Those are the things that the organization needs to do.

SY: What would you consider one of your priorities in your life now, in terms of what you want to be doing with... I mean, would you say you want to prioritize these Asian American organizations? Is that something you really want to use your time for now?

GN: Well not necessarily Asian American. This one with the Go For Broke is one that has a legacy that I feel very passionate about that needs to be, the information needs to be spread out so that people know about it. And just like the Holocaust, it can't be just one time only. It has to be constant in order for people to remember what happened. And so, and then when we talk about like a museum or exhibit museum, on a long term basis you have to know how you're gonna sustain it, and so it may not be just the 100/442, MIS exhibit museum. You may have to become more inclusive about other ethnic military groups. And I think even the people at the Holocaust, like the Museum of Tolerance recognized that it can't be just about Holocaust, that it has to also deal with tolerance or intolerance, and so in that respect there are other ethnic groups that are engaged now at the Museum of Tolerance.

SY: I see. So, and then what, what are some of these other community things that are on your agenda now, besides the Go For Broke Foundation?

GN: I've been involved with the California Retired Teachers Association, also with the El Camino College Foundation -- their focus there is on scholarship -- and also with HELP. HELP is a senior citizen resource organization.

SY: So, it's interesting, so over your, really over your career you've really had certain areas of interest, education being one, the whole Japanese American experience being another, so are those, those are consistent with you right now where you have continued to do work in those same areas. And I imagine you feel a certain, it sort of motivates you, I guess.

GN: Yeah, there's that connection.

SY: Right.

GN: And I'm also involved with the Japanese American Historical Society, and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce as well. Japanese Chamber of Commerce, I've been involved with them since 1993, and I'm happy to see that they're not strictly about business. They, many of the members there, board members, are involved with social service, volunteering and raising money, and it's really nice to see them engaged in that way in the community.

SY: That's great.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.