<Begin Segment 18>

SY: So once the decision was made to have the commission hearings, then is that when you became the head of the redress?

HK: Yes, just before in fact.

SY: Just before.

HK: So our task was to help prepare witnesses who were going to appear the hearings. I think it was in 1987, '87, '88 or so. So we had several sessions preparing our witnesses to appear before the commission panel. I mean, that was not easy. We had to recruit people to come and be willing to testify. We had to kind of twist some arms and push people, 'cause I can understand the reluctance, you know, appearing before a federal commission, and you have a panel with table and microphones and these klieg lights shining on you and crowds there. It could be an intimidating scene and I could understand that. So we had to kind of again cajole and help these people to ease that anxiety about appearing before this commission. So we had several training sessions before... we did some mock hearings and took a lot of kind of nurture to get these people ready and be willing to share. And we finally got a pretty good number of people to share, and I must also pay tribute to the NCRR people for their contribution, 'cause we worked together very closely I think in Los Angeles. I don't know about other areas, but we had a very close relationship with NCRR and we recognized their strong contributions, especially at the grassroots level. Maybe JACL did some things with the legislators, with Dan Inouye and Norm Mineta and Bob Matsui, Spark Matsunaga and so on.

So it was kind of a collective effort, but again, we had to be very careful to acknowledge the strong contributions made by NCRR, they had delegations going to Washington, D.C. and talking to senators and legislators, so they made a very significant contribution to the redress reparations effort. So as redress chair of the Pacific Southwest District JACL, we did help prepare the witnesses to appear, and fortunately we eventually got to a certain comfort level and then they appeared. And I was there for the whole time, like three days of hearings. And I was just moved by hearing the testimony of these people. It was just absolutely mind blowing. I was just taken aback emotionally just time and time again. I was just, almost just blew me away. I just didn't realize some of the pain and agony of that experience, and it was good for our community because it was really therapeutic, cathartic, and they were just unloading emotionally, crying tears, and I was moved to tears too. And I just thought this was a great experience for our community to do this. They were up there, their hands were trembling, shaky voices, but they spoke and they spoke powerfully, eloquently, and in a moving way. I just... it was just an extraordinary experience. The experience of camp and incarceration for some of the people you know around your family, et cetera, et cetera. But to see a much larger picture of how the camp impacted all these people and the varied experiences they went through, it was a revelation. It was a very moving emotional experience for me.

SY: Amazing to be there at that time.

HK: Yes, to be an eye witness. But it was really very emotional and as I said very therapeutic for our community. Then after all these years, this is mid-'80s, so it was like years after camp, I always hear about Japanese Americans, young people say, "Well, my parents never talked to me about camp, they never brought it up, they never mentioned it, and when we asked they were reluctant to answer our questions or inquiries." So I know that there was kind of a hush about the whole experience, but I think that in the mid-'80s with the hearings it was just a time for unloading and sharing the pain of that experience. So the very real sense was cathartic, healthy for us to finally kind of let it out and let it just come pouring out, which it did, pouring out. And we're not... Japanese, we're not very emotional people, but for that it was a very emotional time for all of us and was a very extraordinary time, extraordinary experience.

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