<Begin Segment 11>

TI: So at this point, let's talk about redress a little bit more. So we're in the mid-1980s, you talked about helping with fundraising, getting Vice President Mondale to sign the letter, what were some other activities that you were involved with as national JACL president? Because now it's getting to a point where the Commission hearings had happened earlier in the '80s, and Congress is, the JACL is trying to get Congress to actually pass something. What kind of activities were you doing during that time period? And then furthermore, not only just... yeah, let's pick it up there in terms of Congress.

FS: You know, my whole concern during that time, we had several groups that were pushing at redress from different directions. And my whole key thought was that, look, we got to do this together. We can't be going our own individual ways.

TI: Are you talking internally JACL, or are you talking the other organizations like NCRR and maybe the coram nobis team and things like that?

FS: Yeah, the various teams. You know, even at one stage we even had some of our veterans groups that didn't agree with what we were doing. So my whole focus there was, at that time, was look, we've got to all go at this thing together. And so I did promote one big meeting where we brought all of 'em together, and we conveyed that idea, and we got agreement by all the folks that we would work together for the common purpose.

TI: So tell me about that meeting. When did it happen, where and when? Who was there?

FS: You know, we had this meeting in San Francisco (on July 13, 1985). Ron Wakabayashi set it up, we had all the redress groups, NCRR, NCJAR and so forth, the veterans groups, and we just had a good meeting, and we came out of that meeting with the agreement that we would all work together.

TI: About how many people were there?

FS: You know, I don't remember that. There was probably twenty people, something like that.

TI: And do you know what year this would be?

FS: This had to be... you know, I'd have to recall exactly the timeframe.

TI: Well, if you can't remember, that's okay, I can look it up in documents, but I was just curious in terms of the timeline. But this was when you were JACL national president.

FS: Yes.

TI: And you were president 1985 to 1986?

FS: '84-'86.

TI: Okay.

FS: And you know, it was in that time that I was the inspector general at the VA, so I had to really walk a tightrope. I didn't want anybody to criticize my work or focus wrongful attention on the JACL. So it was kind of a period that was awkward in a way, and yet I think my whole focus was I didn't want to be in the limelight with somebody saying, "Hey, JACL is doing this," and I'm a presidential appointee in the middle of all that. I'd probably get heck from both the White House and the JACL. But my friends in the administration were very good. I kept them informed on what I was doing on the JACL side, and fortunately there was no negative publicity about that. But I was extremely careful about that, and that's one of the reasons why there was not too much publicity about what I was personally doing. I wanted it that way, I wanted to stay out of there. I think it was in the best interest of the organization.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2017 Densho. All Rights Reserved.