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SY: Now, going back, when you decided to run for Torrance city council was it, what, did that have something to do with your involvement with the Pioneer Project or was it totally exclusive of that?

GN: I think it was exclusive in that.

SY: And why did you decide to run?

GN: Well, I got a phone call from Vince Okamoto --

SY: He was a judge then?

GN: No, he was an attorney, a law partner of Ron Wasserman. He also owned Pacific Heritage Bank at that time. And I knew him from the time he was in junior high school at, what, Prairie Junior High School in Gardena, because he was the same age as my younger brother Tosh and so they went to school together there. They went to Gardena High School together and both of them end up in the army in Vietnam, and after he had gone to law school and, he had run for Gardena city council in 1976 and he served one term, and... anyway, when I got -- oh, both he and Ron Wasserman were the legal counsel for the Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute.

SY: Which is totally separate from the Pioneer Project. Is that totally separate?

GN: Yes, Pioneer Project was pretty independent. We had our own facility. I think it eventually got involved with the JCI, but initially it wasn't part of it. And Vince called me because the JCI wanted to build a senior housing at the JCI, and most of the land would be in Torrance, but part of the parking area would be in Gardena. That's, it's almost like you didn't have a border between Torrance and Gardena right in that area. And so they have to go to the planning commission of both cities; they went to the Gardena planning commission and it was approved unanimously, and then they, when they went to the Torrance planning commission there were some neighbors that complained that it's gonna bring in traffic as well as some undesirable people. And so when it went before the Torrance planning commission it was turned down, so now it was the job of Vince Okamoto and Ron Wasserman to appeal the decision to the city council and lobby the city council member about the positive aspect of the, having this senior citizen housing. And they did that, and when it went before the city council they overturned the decision of the planning commission and unanimously approved the project. And today you don't have problems that some of the people were saying; you don't have traffic because, traffic problem, because seniors don't drive, and you don't have undesirable people residing there either. But anyway, what it did is sent a message to the board of directors of the JCI that now Torrance had about fifteen percent Japanese Americans in the city, and if there's an issue that's directly related to the Japanese Americans. who do you go to? They felt that they were lucky this time, but there's nobody on the city council, and that's when Vince gave me a call, asked me if I would consider running for the Torrance city council. And I have to say, at that time the only experience I had as far as campaigning was when George Ogawa ran for the city council back in 1976, I think it was. The call, when I got a call from Vince it was 1983, but George was unable to raise enough money to be a viable candidate and didn't do very well in that election. But I did walk some precincts for him, so that was my, my extent of experience about campaigning. So when Vince called me I said, I don't know anything about running for public office, and he said not to worry, he and Ron have experience in it, and he indicated that he served one term on the Gardena city council. He unseated an incumbent in the process of coming in first. And Ron Wasserman ran his wife, Fumi's campaign for the school board in 1980 and she also unseated the incumbent and came in as a top vote getter. And the two of them ran Paul Bannai's campaign for the state assembly in 1972, and he was a moderate Republican running in a Democratic district, and he won. So he told me that they're not professional at it but they have experience and they enjoy it, and anyway, he thought that I would be a good candidate for the Torrance city council. So that's how it began.

SY: Yeah, but it's amazing that they sort of handpicked you. I mean, they must've had an inkling that that would be something that...

GN: Well, I remember Vince came to the Torrance Kendo Dojo to learn kendo for about a year, so I taught him kendo so there was that, I guess, relationship that kind of developed at that point in time, I remember.

SY: But, and for you, from your perspective, going into politics, what was that, was that scary or was it intimidating? Or did it seem...

GN: No, it wasn't. I saw that as an expansion of community involvement, but you're in a much stronger position to implement things and make things happen, and so that's how I saw that position.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.