<Begin Segment 6>

BY: Let's talk a little bit now about JACL. So JACL has been around for a very long time. It sounds like you became involved when you were working in their regional office. Was that your first involvement, or had you been involved with JACL before that?

SS: Yeah, that was my first official involvement. The Japanese American Citizens League formed in 1929. The chapter in Seattle actually traces its lineage back to 1921, because there were a lot of similar Nisei organizations that formed all over up and down the West Coast. And they coalesced into one national organization in 1929, which is the Japanese American Citizens League. My dad was a member of JACL, so as a little kid, I remember that occasionally there would be these JACL meetings at our house. It was all guys, and Mom would be serving coffee and dessert, and we'd be peeking out from the back until someone saw us and shooed us away. But that was my only... and then there was the JACL picnics that we would go to as a family. But that was my only real exposure to JACL until I moved to Seattle. When I arrived and the commission hearings, Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, was holding their hearings, like, the week after I arrived. So I went and I attended every day of it and took photos, mainly for Unity newspaper and got to know some of the people who were involved in redress locally, including Karen Seriguchi. So I started dropping by the JACL regional office down on Jackson Street and asking questions, and then Karen offered me a part-time position and said, "Hey, we need someone to work here like ten hours a week. You want to do that?" So I said, "Yeah, sure." And through that, and Karen's mentorship, I became much more active within JACL and the Japanese American community. But I met a bunch of people like Cherry Kinoshita, Chuck Kato, Sam Shoji, Mako Nakagawa, all these big names.

BY: So you've been involved, essentially, ever since then?

SS: Well, not really. So I was also a member of NCRR, National Coalition for Redress and Reparations, and working with them, although there weren't that many members up here, so it was mainly working with Washington Coalition on Redress through JACL. But I was actively involved in the redress movement, and then when we won and the payment checks started going out, I was no longer, I only worked at the regional office for two or three years mainly while I was still in school. I kind of dropped out. I maintained my membership, but I wasn't active, I wasn't going to meetings or participating in any committees until 2010 when the Power of Words movement was initiated by Mako Nakagawa and others.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.