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SY: Can you back up and tell us a little bit about this Greater Pasadena, how did that come about? When did that come about?

HK: Well, one of the active members of our chapter before we even formed was Bob Suzuki who eventually became president of Cal Poly Pomona. But Bob and I were at Berkeley together too for a while. Then he came down to Pasadena to go to Cal Tech 'cause he was an aerospace engineering major, and Bob got his PhD from Cal Tech. Then he became a faculty member at USC in engineering, but Bob was interested, he got very interested in education, and in ethnic studies of all things. So he was also active... I'm not quite sure how he got active in the JACL, the Pacific Southwest District of JACL, he became chair after a while of the repeal of Title II of the Internal Security Act of 1950. Now 1950, it that was the height of the McCarthyism and anti-communism, so historically we kind of understand how that evolved at that time. But he was very committed and involved with the repeal of Title II, 'cause he felt it was a real parallels because the Internal Security Act would play on anti-Communism where baiting Red China, Communist China, and there was even conversation about Chinese becoming very suspicious behavior, they were stealing our military secrets, et cetera, et cetera. So there was some talk about, well, we should watch these Chinese and maybe we can put them in camps just like the Japanese. I thought, "What?" We could hardly believe we were hearing what we were hearing. So the effort was to repeal Title II, it was called the McCarran Act. And so Bob was a chair of the committee from the Pacific Southwest and he began to recruit others to kind of help in that endeavor, that effort. So since we knew each other at Berkeley and I knew Bob and what he was doing, we got caught up along with some other young people -- well, fairly young, relatively young -- in the Pasadena area, and we formed our own JACL chapter and Bob was probably the inspiration for our activities. So we got involved and just repealed... that was why we came together largely but then we got caught up with the movement again. With ethnic studies at the Pasadena City College, protesting against the war, caught up in the Civil Rights Movement, and helping to develop our own communities.

SY: And why did the Greater Pasadena chapter form? In addition, you didn't want to go to the existing --

HK: There was an existing Pasadena chapter of JACL, but we thought, well... we thought about joining them and beginning to take on some leadership roles with the other group. We said, well, it might be easier just to form our own group, not only drawing from Pasadena but we call it the Greater Pasadena Area, so we were getting kind of a broader range of people to join our group. So we thought it was a better way to just kind of form our own group. We didn't have to struggle, kind of internal things, but we were all... we were about a dozen, twelve to fifteen of us who had worked together now on the repeal of Title II and other things, so we kind of had some bonding as a group so we just kind of moved ahead as our own group. And I think it that was a good decision basically. And so we became active with the repeal movement and then we got caught up in again referring to the movement.

SY: So this was really in the very... it was way before the redress movement started?

HK: Yes, it was. I don't know about way before but yes.

SY: So what came first, the Greater Pasadena JACL or the formation of the Asian American Studies program?

HK: The forming of the Greater Pasadena Area chapter, and those twelve to fifteen people became the core, and also they're the ones that helped teach this first Asian American Studies class at Pasadena City College. So they became more engaged from that experience, so again, not only an academic exercise for a lot of us but it's also kind of an emotional thing in terms of understanding more about who we are. So it became almost therapeutic in a way to talk with others and share experiences and ideas and thoughts that were... we understood our mutual experiences and there was further cause for our bonding and coming together.

SY: And this Asian American Studies program, though, really began not just as a Japanese American program.

HK: Oh, no, not at all. But the Japanese Americans were a driving force to get moving, but no, it was much larger in its scope. And a lot of it was with early on when Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos and they were the four main groups. But after the war in Vietnam and we get more Vietnamese and other southeast Asians, Cambodians, so it had to by necessity broaden out. So the classes we have now at Pasadena City College incorporate all these groups and the experiences of these groups, and that's really the way it should be. In moreover, ethnic studies is just not for Asians or African Americans or Latinos it's really for the larger society and it's better to have a number of white students in our classes because they learn from the experience and broaden their knowledge about ethnic groups and their contributions. It's just a better and healthier understanding of American society, and I think that's a positive thing for our country.

SY: But your purpose at first was more internal?

HK: It was more internal, identity, helping community development and again as I mentioned earlier is that so we can define ourselves and define our communities, what we want to do, and it was a source of empowerment for us as Asian Pacific Americans, as minorities in California and the U.S.

SY: Usually when you think about these movement groups in the '70s, it's a much younger demographic that started that became involved.

HK: That's true, that's true most of them were Sansei, third generation.

SY: And did you consider yourself different because you were a Nisei?

HK: Well, in our group there were some combination Nisei and some Sansei as well.

SY: So it was more Nisei driven then at the time?

HK: I would say probably maybe half, but I guess I would say at the time, initially more Nisei initially driven but after a while it was just clear that it was a much broader movement with third generation, fourth generation coming into assist with the mission of what we're trying to do.

SY: But his activist role, would you consider you took on a very activist...

HK: I would say yes. I became very engaged in the whole process again largely from my ethnic studies, Asian American studies interest, and then becoming much more aware of the larger community. Again, we were out there marching against the war in Vietnam, marching with our fellow minorities regarding civil rights, human rights.

SY: So and at the same time were you doing what else? What was your other role at Pasadena City College?

HK: Since 1978 I joined the full time faculty, and my role there was largely in counseling students. I worked with students on a regular basis, but also helping to foster this Asian American Studies program. So to keep that... it's helpful to have a full time employee to help sustain the program. If you bring in part time people, they're good, but to have a sustaining effort you need at least one or more than one if possible full time person. So fortunately, I was there as a full time faculty member, so I was able to give it some sustainability.

SY: So you were never actually teaching classes other than Asian American studies?

HK: I also -- 'cause my political science background -- I did teach some political science, American government classes periodically. But my primary interest was of course Asian American studies, and that was my growing interest and I just did a lot of my own reading in the area. So I just enjoyed that experience 'cause, again, it was not only academic it was also personal, psychological, emotional for me to sort out who I am, my role, my function, how do I fit into society as a minority person.

SY: And then as the years progressed, the Greater Pasadena JACL continued to take on other topics?

HK: Yes, whenever there were some big social issues that would come up before us, largely like curriculum in colleges, and some of the other things were they were trying to limit the enrollment of Asian students on some of the college campuses. I remember Berkeley, it was a big issue there, they were concerned about there were too many Asians enrolling, largely Chinese from Chinatown in San Francisco and some Japanese Americans. They were concerned about the growing number of Asian Pacifics there and of course today it's incredible, but almost half the students at Berkeley are Asian and Irvine it's like two-thirds, and UCLA is about forty-five percent, it's incredible. But at the time when the numbers were growing, it was kind of threatening, I suppose, so they tried to limit that. So that became an issue about the criteria for enrolling students.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.