<Begin Segment 18>

TI: So you hear a lot of the... or when you see things happening today, it's almost like what I'm hearing is that a lot of things you were saying forty years ago are kind of coming back up in terms of the racism, these vulnerable communities that are somehow targeted and persecuted.

RI: I think in a lot of ways, the Japanese American community, when redress came about, when redress legislation was signed into law, it became a marker for people saying, "Okay, this is what happened, let's make sure it doesn't happen again." And then, you look at it fortuitously, Secretary Norman Mineta, Secretary of the Department of Transportation, 9/11, how all of those things came about, and how President Bush said, "We're not going to allow it to happen to others that happen to others, what happened to Norm Mineta." And to have the President of the United States know that? Now, if this President that we have now could recite that, I think all of us would sleep a little better at night, but we don't have that. See, one of the aspects that we're very, very fortunate, I go back, Norm would not be Secretary of Transportation, or Secretary of Commerce, but for those late nights that he would be writing to his constituents at his home, the thank you letters, and then falling asleep in the chair. I'm thankful to be able to be there to watch him, to learn from him, and not only the United States, but certainly the community is so blessed to have that.

TI: Going back to your role, so I'm thinking, so you were a spokesperson, you were on the Larry King show. So during this time, were you doing more and more of that? Were you kind of the face of the JACL, of the Japanese American community, vis-a-vis redress?

RI: No. I think, maybe in Washington, D.C., with civil rights groups or the New York Times or different media outlets, we didn't have online or internet at that time. But I left most of the public relations work to people like John Tateishi, I'd leave it to Min Yasui, others that were probably in a better position, much better commanding and speaking on the issue. I spent a lot of time at the local communities, whether it's in California or Seabrook, New Jersey, or different places in the United States. I remember going up to Burlington, Vermont, or to Middleton or different places in the Northeast, to talk about redress to college students. It's interesting because when I was at UCLA, it was in the late '60s, and I kind of discounted it at that time, but college students really have a voice. It's a time when you could think about things you want, life to be better, better country, better place to live. And so going there and listening to these young people -- I guess they're all now fifty or sixty years old -- but I think that's a very critical part because if JACL is in twenty-five states, and we're talking about little chapters, we're not talking about, probably most of our chapters are in California, well, you have a whole United States to vote for. You have four hundred thirty-five people on the House side. One thing about, as we go along, there was no question in my mind that Senator Inouye was going to easily go ahead and introduce this bill. And when he had the Pribilof Islands, the Aleutian Islands, people included, and so you had Senator Stevens in there and then you had people, you had Alan Simpson on there, I'm thinking, that's my first inkling when I found out about Norm and Alan Simpson, Senator Simpson, is that what does Wyoming have, other than Heart Mountain, with the redress. And so without knowing these things, in the House and Senate side, these things come about. Now, I remember when Norm Mineta decided to go get some co-sponsors for the commission, and I believe, if I remember correctly, Norm was able to have 235 co-sponsors. Well, you need half of 435, so 217, 218, 218 votes to pass any legislation in the House. And he had 235 co-sponsors, people that said they would vote for this. And the person that introduced the bill was Majority Leader Jim Wright. And that was really key. This was just for the commission, we're not talking about the redress bill later on, this is the commission. And then when the co-sponsor list came out and I got a copy of the bill, ran it over to Senator Inouye's office, and he says one thing to me, he says, "Formidable." And then I know he sent a letter to Norm with the same words, and I think in a lot ways, and it's kind of comical, I wish I could have videotaped it, is that when the four Nikkei members of Congress were all sitting together at the table, it wasn't poker, but you're sitting there and you're listening and go, well, Senator Inouye says, "Well, Sparky and I could get this through this commission, we can get it through the Senate. We'll have to do something with Senator Hayakawa, but I think we can get it through the Senate." Then he kind of turns his head and looks at Norm and says, "How about you?" [Laughs] And then I felt for Norm, I felt for Norm. And didn't want to look at Congressman Matsui because Bob was just elected, okay, Bob needs to get reelected. He's thinking, oh, my gosh. And so then Norm looks down and says, "Okay, gambarimasu," we'll do our best. And so then when Norm was able to get over 235 co-sponsors, I think it was his way of telling Senator Inouye, "Okay."

TI: "I called your..."

RI: "I call you and I raise you one," or something. No, but to have that interplay, to have that camaraderie, collegial atmosphere on an important legislation like this, it's personal relationships.

TI: And especially when you said earlier, politicians, they're... get elected or get reelected, they were doing something for the overall Japanese American community nationally, it wasn't for San Jose or Honolulu, this was something that they were going beyond what they had to do in terms of getting reelected, that was special.

RI: That's why, at a tense moment, when you see things like that happen, that's why I'll tell everyone, personal relationships were everything.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.