<Begin Segment 18>

MN: So when did you start writing articles for the Rafu Shimpo?

TN: You know, I don't remember. Must have been in the late '70s. I wrote an occasional article about sports or whatever. In the '80s I started writing some more, 'cause I became acquainted with some of the people in NCRR, then I started going to their meetings, found out more about the redress movement, started writing about it.

MN: And NCRR is the National Coalition for Redress and...

TN: Redress and Reparations back then.

MN: And now it's... Nikkei for Civil Rights...

TN: And Reparations.

MN: Reparations. Is this how you got to know Frank Emi?

TN: Yeah. Somebody told me all about him and about Heart Mountain draft resisters, so I wrote a story about him.

MN: So now this is about the time when the redress movement was gaining momentum.

TN: Yeah.

MN: And when you started to hear about redress, how did you feel about that?

TN: Pretty good, but I was kind of doubtful we would actually get something. Thought they were just waiting for everybody to die off, or most people. "They" meaning the government.

MN: When William Hohri spearheaded the National Council for Japanese American Redress, NCJAR, did you go to any of the early meetings?

TN: I think I went to a couple of them, and somebody told me about another draft resister from Rohwer, Arkansas, Joe Yamakido, so I wrote about him. And one of the people active in the NCJAR, one of the local people, she was a lawyer in the firm where my wife worked as a legal secretary, Joyce Okinaka or something like that, I don't remember her name.

MN: Did you get any problems of writing about draft resisters at that time?

TN: What do you mean problems?

MN: Did anybody complain that this is not kind of the story you should be writing?

TN: Not that I'm aware of. Somebody, you mean in management or somebody from the outside?

MN: Both.

TN: Not that I know.

MN: You mentioned you wrote articles about redress and NCJAR and NCRR. Did you help out in other ways with NCRR?

TN: Oh, a few times I passed out leaflets with Kathy Masaoka. I don't know, that's about it. Something about Jesse Jackson coming to Day of Remembrance or something. I don't remember what he came out for.

MN: So ethically, as a journalist, did you think this was a conflict of interest to be passing out fliers?

TN: That was on my day off. It's a free country.

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