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BY: So you entered Franklin in the fall of 1970, two years after a famous sit-in by black students there, led in part by Larry Gossett. Were you aware of that history, did it impact you in any way?

TI: Yeah, I was aware of it, because I had older brothers, and they were both Franklin High School. And I remember, in particular, my oldest brother Dan was there, he might have been a senior or something when that happened. And he remembered some of the, for him, the violence that was going on during that time, it was sort of a scary time for students. So I was aware of it. I didn't really, at that time, maybe understand the issues of what was going on, but it was a very turbulent time.

BY: Were you political in any way? I mean, you're graduating in '74, so Watergate has happened, the Vietnam War has been roiling the country.

TI: I think I was... because I loved to read, and so I would follow everything. So there were things that I would do that maybe are, I realized were more political. I mean, I talked earlier about my mom being helped by the Catholic church, and so I was raised Catholic. And I remember as a young teen reading more about what the Catholic church was doing in poor countries in South and Central America, and just feeling that all this wealth of the Catholic church and the excesses of Rome and all that, they were taking resources. So I remember telling my mother that I'm leaving the Catholic church, and she was not happy with that. But I said, "How can I support a religion that does this?" So I remember leaving, and so not getting confirmed, which my mother was very upset about, but that was something political. And I was anti-war, Vietnam, and that led to my conversations with my dad about how he could be a veteran, or how could he join the army when they were doing this to Japanese Americans. So I think I probably was. I didn't think I was that much, but...

BY: Being a veteran, was he supportive of the war in Vietnam?

TI: No, he was not actively supportive, I think he was against it. But he would not maybe protest or go against it, recognizing at one point he worked for the Department of Defense, and he still was a government official. He was a high-level regional administrator for the government. But he never was an advocate, I would say.

BY: It's also curious to me, the time that you're in high school, we're watching television and there are shows like All in the Family and The Jeffersons even depicting African American life, but was there a show that depicted Asian American life? I don't remember one. I mean, there was Kung Fu, but...

TI: Yeah, you have (David) Carradine, a white person in yellowface, right?

BY: Even though that show, which I watched, did depict racism in the 19th century, it was odd that there was this Anglo playing the character.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2020 Densho. All Rights Reserved.