<Begin Segment 12>

AI: Yes, and what was your father doing then when he came back?

AK: He was a porter for the Union Station.

AI: Now, I think I remember you mentioning in your other interview that he helped organize a porter's union, and that you were the secretary for the union. When was this? Was this right --

AK: And right after the war when we returned, there was, naturally, this situation where one group was being pitted against the other.

AI: You mean racial groups?

AK: Yeah, well, the black porters are saying, "Hey, now the Japanese are here, they're going to take our jobs away." And then the railroad's saying, "Okay, we'll give the jobs back to the Japanese." And so it was kind of a tense situation. And my dad said, "You know, we're just being pitted against each other. We need to pull ourselves together and form a union, and we'll both benefit from it."

AI: And do you recall if this was right after you got back? Was this about 1945? You would have been twenty years old.

AK: Uh-huh.

AI: What can you tell me about those early days of organizing and when you were the secretary?

AK: I was surprised. It was very easy. And I don't know how my dad got these very efficient, sophisticated people. Because they just worked together and talked together, and formed the union and started the union dues, and it worked out fine. And so it became a very amenable situation where you weren't saying, "They came and took our jobs away and we're taking their jobs back." So that was...

AI: That must have been one of the very first multiracial unions.

AK: Uh-huh. And I got involved with CORE right away.

AI: Can you explain what CORE was? I think a lot of people don't know.

AK: Congress of Racial Equality.

AI: And what was the, what were some of the main goals?

AK: It was just a, you know, [inaudible], all those people, it was just to get along with each other and understand each other, and it was just...

AI: Working for better understanding.

AK: Understanding. And it wasn't difficult. And it just kind of seemed like a natural thing to do, and just kind of worked, you know. I think -- and there again, it wasn't that I thought that deeply, and analyzed everything, that this was the right thing, sociologically correct, blah, blah, blah, any of those kinds of things. It just happened.

AI: Uh-huh. It was part of the activities that you got involved in.

AK: Uh-huh. And the people, you know, were just...

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.