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KU: Can you just say what you think are some of the most important memories you'd like to share or accomplishments personally and of the organization during that time you were there?

MM: Okay. In my transition from Congresswoman Maxine Waters' office and working mainly in the Black community, I think it was just the right time for me, right time for LTSC, but I decided to go back to Little Tokyo and worked there for, this time as a staffperson, working there full time. And what happened was that LTSC, which was founded in 1980 doing social services, and over a period of time, they had started taking on what was called Community Economic Development, or becoming nonprofit developers building not only residential housing, but whatever resources that were needed in the community. So that was being done by two separate entities, both under the umbrella of LTSC, Little Tokyo Service Center. So they had merged in 2003 after a period of that, being two organizations. And so on the merger process, you took a social service component, it's mostly women, mostly Japanese immigrants who spoke Japanese. I'm kind of simplifying this, but on the other side, the community Economic Development Component had mostly Americanized Sansei and other Asian American men, spoke English. Very different skill sets, different outlook, different culture, different communication style, and so they were having some growing pains. And so Bill and others asked me to come, and because I spoke Japanese, I could maybe be a bridge. So that was one explanation. I mean, I don't want to make it sound like it was such an important thing. And for me, after working for Councilwoman Waters for that many years, we were both ready to create a little distance between us. [Laughs] But like even today, I still work with Councilwoman Waters and support her and stuff. But my day to day existence kind of shifted dramatically when I went back to LTSC. And I would say I'm really glad that I did because I learned so much from both components and from everything that happened at LTSC. I think Bill and Erich and Dean and others, Yasuko, who was there before me, they did a really good job of building up the Little Tokyo Service Center between, in the time that I was gone. And so I was thankful that I found a place there. I guess I always feel like I was trying to contribute my skills and whatever I had to offer to a group of people who were social workers who I could never be. But trying to help them, sort of, organize things. So I was kind of like an administrator working mostly internally with the social workers. So I really feel, like I keep saying, I really feel a lot of gratitude about that experience. I learned so much that I don't know if you can articulate what they were.

And somewhere along that time, probably after 2012, 2013, I had been peripherally working on building this rec center through LTSC. So because there was a tremendous interest in having a community recreation center or sports center, so LTSC had committed to building something like that. But when Bill retired, there was a little bit of a leadership gap, and just lacking in resources. So even though I was full time in social services, I think it was Dean and Erich asked me, would I consider leading that effort? And so I shifted to fundraising and community outreach and conceptualizing the whole campaign to raise thirty-four million dollars. So I played a role in that. And again, it's really a gratifying thing in a different sense because unlike social service, we don't visibly see changes in people day to day or how your help impacted anybody. But with the recreational center, it's called Budokan, and it's a building, and it's there. You could see people walking through the door enjoying themselves, little kids playing basketball, older people playing ping pong or doing yoga. And it's modeled as "a home court for all," and it's a very inclusive space. And we have programming where people from Skid Row come to do that. So the overall experience, I feel like whatever I was able to contribute, it pales in comparison to what I got out of it.

KU: Are there any last words you have about this whole period of time beyond your work, your whole career?

MM: I'll probably think of things on the way home, on the 405. [Laughs] No, I don't think so.

KU: I think that's a wrap. Thank you very much.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.