Densho Digital Repository - David Sakura Interview II (Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-513-10)

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VY: Were you able to attend those hearings?

DS: No, I have no recall of attending the commission hearings. I don't know what I was doing, but I have no recall of attending any of the hearings.

VY: Well, you did have a full-time job at the time.

DS: I must have been working. But I do remember, I do remember vividly the luncheon that was held after the hearings. And I remember giving so many remarks on behalf of the New England chapter of the JACL, "We appreciate blah-blah-blah." And when I was finished with my comments, during that luncheon, the professor who testified before the commission, his name is David Musto, who was a professor of psychology and actually drug addiction, testified before the commission. And in his remarks at the luncheon, he said when he was growing up in Seattle, Washington, his father brought him down to "Camp Harmony" to see what was happening to the Japanese American community. And they stood outside the barbed wire and looked in on the incarcerees. So I got up and thanked him for his comments, and I said it's really ironic that almost forty years later, "your father was standing on the outside, and I was standing on the inside, and here we are, forty years later, celebrating the establishment of the commission, and we hope that the findings will bring some closure to this." So I thought it was great to be on the inside looking out. And David, Professor Musto as a child, looking in, and we were meeting forty years later.

VY: That's such a powerful image. Okay... oh, I was wondering how many days the hearings lasted, do you remember?

DS: I have no recall. It's a blank.

VY: That's okay.

DS: I think you can go into the records and find the transcripts and all that. I think that the encounter with Dr. Musto was really memorable for me on a personal note.

VY: Yeah, it's so powerful. Do you remember how the hearings recovered at the time, do you have any recollection of if the news was reporting on it?

DS: I do. I have a collection of news clippings and the like. I'm not sure if there was much coverage in the greater Boston area. But I think the commission hearings in Boston had an impact on the recommendations made by the commission.

VY: And do you think that impact was recognized by the other chapters as well?

DS: I don't know. We're sort of like a little appendage on the greater JACL organization. And we were pretty well focused on the redress, on the commission hearings. We sort of had one objective at the time, and I know that the objectives have broadened since that time over the years. But we were, it almost felt like we were a team of guerrilla fighters with one objective, and that was to bring the commission hearings to Boston.

VY: It's a good way. Now, I do know that there were some different philosophies towards redress, and I was wondering if you ever interacted with any, there's a couple of different organizations that kind of peeled off?

DS: No, not really. If you had asked me what happened after redress, I think the chapter became somewhat dormant. I had to pursue my career with much vigor, and after all that energy that was expended to bring the commission hearings to Boston, I think we had to move on. Glen Fukushima graduated in '82 and has had a distinguished career. I've lost track of Alex Kimura, some of the other members of JANE and the JACL. There was a family, the "Dutch" Adachi family, Dutch and Aiko were Niseis, but they were very, very supportive of JANE and the JACL. And Aiko wrote me a wonderful letter talking about the Nisei attitude towards, especially the New England Nisei attitude towards the JACL and the excitement she had about the younger Sansei and their enthusiasm for pushing the idea of joining the JACL and redress. And I had the privilege of having lunch with her. She's a hundred years old, sharp as a tack, but she didn't recognize... she didn't recognize me. But she wrote a wonderful letter that's in the records now, historical records of the chapter that describes the conflict between the Nisei, some of the Nisei, and the up and coming Sansei activists who were promoting the JACL.

VY: Oh, that's great. It's firsthand documentation, that's wonderful.

DS: Yeah, yeah. It's a wonderful letter, I love reading it. Both her son Michael Adachi, along with Alex Kimura, Glen Fukushima, were really pushing the concept.