<Begin Segment 14>

TI: But then, the mid-'70s, but the thing that still astounds me, so a few years later you're elected vice president of public affairs at the national level. So one thing in terms of the story you told about being asked to be president of a local chapter, but now to be on the board and the vice president of public affairs at the national level, how did that leap happen?

FS: Well, when I was in eighth grade, I would say there are some things you can control, and there's other things that happen that really help you that's just totally fortuitous, right? Well, it just so happens that 1976, the national JACL convention came to Sacramento, and we were the host chapter.

TI: And you were the chapter president?

FS: Yeah, and I was the chapter president. See, Percy never really told me that. He said, "Oh, this year is going to be a little special, we have a few more things you have to do because we're hosting the national convention." And they had a convention chair, so it wasn't like I had to do the convention. But at the convention, if you're the chapter president, at every dinner or event, you get up and you greet the delegates or you make a little statement, and then you always get to sit at the head table, and now you get to sit by the national president and all the officers, so it's kind of a high visibility thing. And so being the chapter president at that time kind of introduced me to, the organization got to know me. And I was very distinctive, because I was so darn young that it's like, "Who the heck is that guy?" They said, "Oh, Floyd Shimomura, he's from Winters." And thinking, "Oh, okay." But then they remembered what my name was, because I was, like, twenty-five years younger than almost everybody else on the national board and everything.

TI: So going back to your friend Percy, he kind of knew this. I mean, he, not set you up, but he wanted you to have this visibility because he knew with the national convention, he knew all these things would happen, right?

FS: Oh, yeah.

TI: So it wasn't like, just, oh, I'm just finding someone. He had this figured out.

FS: Maybe he did.

TI: Because now, as you look at your path, I mean, it's almost like, if you were able to talk to him, said, "Yeah, if I got Floyd in this position and people saw him, it would set him up for this and this and this." I mean, that's what it feels like, as I hear the story.

FS: Maybe, because he talked me into doing it another year. Because usually people only do it for one year, so I did it in '66...

TI: '76?

FS: '76 and '77. And in '76, as you know, that's when 9066 got repealed by President Ford. So JACL was kind of getting into the pre-redress thing, and there was an apology, and Michi Weglyn's book was published in '76. But the other thing that happened in '76 was Edison Uno passed away late in the year. And he was the chair of the Northern Cal Civil Rights Committee, this is on the district level. And Jim Murakami, that following year, the second year was national president, appointed me to that committee and also to replace him as the chair of that committee.

TI: I'm sorry, who was this again, who did this?

FS: Jim Murakami, he was the national president at that time, from Santa Rosa. And so I said, okay, I'll do that. Because he figured that I might know something about civil rights law or something, which I really didn't. But at that point in my career, I always said yes. So I got on that committee, and that's when I started learning all about the repeal of 9066 and the apology and everything, and the discussion about it. That's really where I learned a lot about redress, because then Edison always was this redress person. So people would ask me about redress, like I knew everything Edison knew. So I had to get them to bring me up to speed, like what did Edison do? I know that he made some speeches, but they said, "Oh, he's working on a resolution to take to the national council." And there was a bunch of other people who were interested in that, so in my mind, a resolution is like a document that you draft. So I said, "Oh, I can do a resolution, I'll help them draft it." But in that process, I learned a lot about redress and what the issues were. And the main thing that I learned at that time was everybody was so happy for the apology from President Ford, but you know, it was not satisfying. It's like, okay, he repealed that and said he was sorry, but why is it that I don't feel like that was enough? And people said, "We got to get money, not apology." Because without money, that's not sincere. I mean, it's too easy. They can't get us off their back just by saying, "I'm sorry," and then we're going to say, "Okay, thank you, we'll go home now." And so that's kind of where it became real clear that an apology wasn't enough, but that the system felt guilty or responsible, or was kind of conceding that what they did was wrong, and was willing to give you something. But now we're thinking maybe we're aiming too low there, right?

TI: And this is in this, like, between '76 and '78 timeframe?

FS: Yeah, this is the buildup to the '78 convention, which ended up, it was the resolution where, instead of just talking about, wouldn't redress be nice, this resolution came up with the $25,000 per person and the apology. But the real thing, difference, was they instructed the national staff and the national president to implement it. That was, no more talk now, this was action. And so that's the same convention that I got elected vice president of public affairs. So I was kind of, I don't know, it was kind of like momentum, because I was sitting in Edison's position, and then I drafted the resolution, then I was the one that went around explaining to people what was in the darn thing.

TI: Oh, so you drafted the resolution?

FS: Well, in JACL, no one ever does anything by themselves, but I was on the committee that, I wouldn't say that I drafted it, but I helped them put in the proper form, maybe.

TI: Right, so because of your training and knowledge and your connection...

FS: Yeah, there was a committee, and it was a pretty simple, straightforward thing.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.