Densho Digital Repository - Stanley N. Shikuma Interview II (Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-520-10)

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BY: Okay. All right, so let's move to Nisei Vets. So you are not a military veteran, correct?

SS: No.

BY: So how did you become involved with Nisei Vets?

SS: Well, because my taiko group practices there. Seattle Kokon Taiko has been practicing at the Nisei Vets hall since the late '80s, '88 or '89, I think. And I would have to say, we're one of the preferred renters there, the prime one being Cascade Kendo Club because it used to, before the war, it was the kendo dojo, practice place for the kendo kai. And that got shut down because of the war, and it took years after the war before it was able to reopen. So they sold it to the Nisei Vets, who wanted a clubhouse after the war because of racism. The other vets groups like the American Legion or the VFW wouldn't allow Japanese American vets to join them. So they said, "Well, we'll form our own vets organization." So they bought the clubhouse for like a dollar or a hundred dollars/some nominal thing. So now that the kendo kai is the renter that can never be expelled. So my taiko group's been practicing there for years.

And around 2000, early 2000s, the Nisei generation was really dwindling by that time, and the Sansei generation was looking at, so we need to step up and take over. And there was a debate at the time of what should we do with the clubhouse, because it was getting pretty old and needing a lot of repair. So there was a question of should we refurbish, remodel the building and keep it? Should we sell it and build somewhere new? Should we just sell it and rent space for meetings and not try to maintain our own facility? So there was a real question of what would happen. And the decision was finally made to... there's a history here, so let's keep the building, so we'll remodel it. And in order to do that and make it work, we need more people involved. So they put out a call to all the groups that rent space there, basketball teams, the kendo kai, the taiko group, saying that we need people to help us if we're gonna save the building. And if you're a renter and you want to have this in two years, you need to step up now. So I started going to the meetings and volunteering. And because I had experience editing newsletters, I said, "Well, I can help with the newsletter." Thanks to Karen Seriguchi who, her other job besides being a regional director with JACL was being an editor for one of the major publishing houses, and Ron Chew, because when I first moved here, I worked for the International Examiner and Ron Chew was the editor at the time. So those two really helped me in terms of my own writing, but also just what it means to edit other people's writing. So I volunteered, and we had a newsletter committee of five or six people: Sam Mitsui and Matsue Watanabe, and Kachi Ikeda were the senior members. And then the new ones were me and Page Tanagi, who was our graphic designs guy who does a lot of community work. So Page ended up becoming the graphics editor, and I became the copy editor. So now all the articles come to me and I edit them and then submit them to, we have someone we hire to do the layout. And then Page gets all the photos and graphics and gets them ready and submits those.

BY: So it's gone from a six-person committee to a two-person committee, it sounds like.

SS: Three.

BY: Three? Oh, okay.

SS: Three because there's the paid staff person, he's paid a nominal fee, but he does the actual layout and submits it to the printer. Page takes care of any of the graphics, editing and photo editing, and then I take care of the editing the copy of the articles. And then the committee also includes the commander, Nisei Veterans Committee Commander, and the NVC Foundation president.

BY: So what do you see as the future for the Nisei Vets?

SS: That's an ongoing question. So it will no longer be a Nisei veterans organization, but they will keep the name. There are, to me, a kind of surprising number of Japanese American veterans who are around. So there was thought maybe five years ago, eight years ago, that they would close down the Nisei Veterans Committee because it's a 501(c)4, a veterans organization, and to maintain that status, you have to have a certain percentage of your membership as vets, and transition to a 501(c)3, which is the NVC Foundation. Which is, when they first set it up, it was like, so the vets go into NVC and everyone who is not a vet, spouses, sons and daughters, friends, supporters, can join the NVC Foundation. And the thought at that time was that we'll have a transition period and eventually we'll shut down the NVC as a veterans organization and then we'll have the NVC Foundation take over. Well, so there were some Sansei vets who said, "Well, no, we still got vets, and we should maintain that veterans legacy because we have vets from Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan coming up. So now it seems like they'll be able to maintain the NVC. And another question is whether they want to, how they want to handle the NVC Foundation. Because it's a little bit cumbersome having two nonprofit organizations kind of sharing responsibility for the building and future planning and stuff. So I think that is yet to be resolved.