<Begin Segment 10>

TK: There were also other very strong personalities, Judge Marutani, Daniel Lungren...

AM: Yes.

TK: Are there any anecdotes that you might like to give us about some of those other people?

AM: I've always thought, especially in light of some of the events afterwards, it really was important to emphasize that Congressman Lungren really had no dissent from the historical report at all. And that, I think it's important to see that he represented a conservative constituency and had a conservative record and the fact that he was the vice chairman of the commission and that without question he stood behind the historical account was very, very important. And one of the things that the commission decided to do was to put out the historical report and then have a considerable gap of time before putting out the recommendations so that people, as much as you can through the press and the media, people had an opportunity to absorb the history without being focused on the recommendations. And Lungren very much supported that and it's something that I've thought particularly for someone who is in the end -- and I think everyone knew at the time -- was going to dissent from any financial aspect of the final recommendations. It (...) did express the fact that he really did believe that having the opportunity for the public to understand what happened here and to absorb it was a very important part of what was to be taken away from it.

TK: Judge Marutani?

AM: Judge Marutani. He took, ultimately, (a position_ -- I think this is very true -- (...) that I think many people found maybe a little extreme. He really, once on the commission, refused to talk directly to (...) any of the Japanese American people or groups that he'd been very familiar with and very close to for a great many years, of course, before he was on the commission. And there's, I think, a feeling in the parts of the Japanese American community that this was a little absurd, this wasn't a court. But his view was that it was important that there not be any suggestion of partiality on his side or that he was some special pipeline for (...) Japanese American groups, once he was on the commission. And he was right about that. I remember some people sort of chuckling a little bit, that maybe he's carrying it a little too far, but it's ultimately the kind of thing that you can't carry too far, because you're trying to establish the clear fact that, look, obviously you bring your life history (to the commission) and it's obviously one reason he was appointed, but that once you're doing this job, you're trying to do it on the merits and you're not trying to simply reflect the views of people that you've dealt with and have worked with for many, many years.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.