Densho Digital Repository - David Sakura Interview II (Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-513-6)

<Begin Segment 6>

VY: Okay, so now you're in JANE. At this point in time, how many members do you think there were? Like around a dozen?

DS: Yeah, about a dozen. You have to remember that in New England, unlike the West Coast, there's really a small, there was a small population of Japanese Americans and largely affiliated with the universities and colleges. In the greater Boston area, someone mentioned that there were over five hundred, six hundred thousand students in the greater Boston area. And it's a citadel of education with three medical schools and lots of colleges and universities and junior colleges. So there's a huge student population in Boston.

VY: And at the time that you were there, during your time at JANE, I imagine, like you said, there weren't a whole lot of Japanese Americans or Asian Americans in that area. Can you talk a little bit about what that was like? Because you've also talked before about having a certain responsibility of being the only person of color in the room or in a group. Now you've joined this group where you're all people of color.

DS: Yeah. I just thought of that today. It's the first time, it was the first time in my life, other than living in Eatonville in the company housing with a hundred other Japanese individuals, this is the first time I spent any amount of time working with, affiliating with a Japanese group of people. It was different, and working with people that look like yourself. But at the same time, very articulate, very smart, just an amazing sub-group. But the fact that we were all of the same ethnic background was unusual, and in some ways disconcerting, but in other ways, really comfortable that we seemed to have a camaraderie that other individuals, the white community, may not understand. And I think many of the, many of us in that group had the feeling of maybe even coming home with... yeah, that we are finally together.

VY: Yeah, that sounds like a very powerful experience after spending, maybe it was a couple of decades, really, just always being the only person of color most of the time everywhere you go.

DS: Uh-huh. I sometimes think about the analogy about... the analogy of being a salmon... wow, you really triggered a response, so I'm going to take a little break.

[Interruption]

VY: So before the break we were talking about how, from the time you left Minidoka and settled in your new home in Milwaukee until the time you became a member of the group JANE, in the late '70s, so a span of over thirty years, you were usually the only person of color in the room for many instances. And as a member of JANE, this kind of changed.

DS: You're right. It changed in a really dramatic way. I found myself working with individuals who are non-white, who are actually, they looked like me. They had the same sort of singsong Japanese intonations like me, where you always end up with a quizzical question rather than a declarative statement. There's always this tentativeness. But what was really exciting is that these were really, really smart people, and had largely come from the West Coast. And so they brought a West Coast sensibility to us Easterners. And I found that really, really exciting.

VY: And how long did JANE exist, as a group?

DS: Actually, in retrospect, not very long. Because we organized in maybe the spring/summer of 1978, had a number of meetings, and in fact, some of the meetings were held at the home of a Nisei in the community. And the Nisei in the community, by and large, were those that were involved with JANE and JACL, were really pillars of the community. They were professionally trained, well-recognized in their profession, fairly well-off living in neighborhoods. And so, once again, they represented the Nisei generation of achievement, either academically or in business or in the arts. And so it was a interesting group of student activists and well-established Niseis that came together initially with JANE and then subsequently with the JACL. So we began to organize in 1978 and 1979, and the organization, if you read the minutes, dealt with a lot of social activities. But as I mentioned we had a consciousness-raising activity describing the internment experience. But then in the winter/spring of 1979, one of the several members of JANE brought to the group the idea of re-forming the New England Chapter of the JACL. And several individuals come to mind, including a student from Harvard, Alex Kimura, as well as Glen Fukushima, who brought the idea to the JANE group and arranged to have an informational organizational meeting in February of 1979. And Ron Ikejiri from JACL came, gave his description of the benefits of the JACL, joining the JACL, and I think the incorporation or the restart of the New England Chapter of the JACL began in February of 1979 with this meeting with Ron Ikejiri. But I think it's amazing that the students initiated this transformation again. And it was some key individuals that continued to provide their support in the ongoing efforts of the JACL including the redress.