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BN: And were you at UCLA too when you started with the Nisei for Wallace? Because that was about the same time, right?

WS: Yeah.

BN: How did that come about?

WS: Well, I just saw that they were meeting and I joined 'em, I guess.

BN: What appealed to you about -- this is, now, Henry Wallace we're talking about. What appealed to you and the other Nisei?

WS: Gee, what was the issues at the time? I don't remember the big issues. I don't remember. I was involved with that... what's her name? Sue Embrey, involved in that?

BN: Yeah. Did you know Sue at that time?

WS: Yeah, Sue Embrey, Sak Ishihara and that group, right?

BN: Yeah, the first mention I saw of Nisei Progressives, which came out of Nisei for Wallace, right, do you remember how that happened? Because that was not just L.A., right? That was sort of national.

WS: Yeah, New York, Chicago, San Francisco.

BN: How did that come about? How did you get to know these people in these other cities?

WS: I don't know. I think the people like Sak were organizing them. I think... what year is this?

BN: Because Wallace was '48, right?

WS: '48.

BN: Which... I'm not sure now. I mean, the first mention I saw of Nisei Progressives was 1949. I found, there was an article that you and Fumi Ishihara were putting on a bebop party to benefit the Nisei Progressives.

WS: Sak was, he was a Communist Party.

BN: This is Sak Ishihara?

WS: Yeah.

BN: I don't know him.

WS: So we would meet at their house. So a lot of those young Niseis, intellectuals, they were nice. I don't know how it broke up, but when it was going on, there was a lot of young intellectuals. There was a lot of different groups, progressive Niseis.

BN: And then you were continuing to go to UCLA throughout all this period, and then you graduated? And then what did you do after you completed UCLA?

WS: When did I graduate?

BN: You know, I don't know. Well, you started in '47.

WS: I graduated '47 from high school, right?

BN: Yeah.

WS: So, like, '51?

BN: Did you finish in four years?

WS: Yeah, I think so, barely. I was just happy to get out.

BN: And was your degree in sociology?

WS: Yeah. I think I went at night a little bit, it was a lot of fun at night. Meet a lot of older students, it was good.

BN: So, and then when you graduated, did you start working, or did you go right on to graduate school?

WS: Let's see. So what year are we talking about now?

BN: Well, if you graduated in about '51...

WS: Yeah, '51, what did I do? I don't know.

BN: When did you start law school?

WS: I started much later.

BN: That was later in life.

WS: About five years later? See, I finished UCLA and I worked in a factory, I was organizing in a factory. I think I organized a strike at the factory. I don't know what I was doing.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.