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BN: Okay. So it's June 1, 2023, and we're doing a second interview with Jeff Furumura at his home in Mililani. I'm Brian Niiya doing the interview, and we have George Russell shooting the video. And we're just going to jump right in. And we were talking earlier about Gidra and I think we want to start with that. But I think you wanted to preface that by talking a little bit about how you got involved in the Asian American movement that Gidra came to be the voice of in some ways.

JF: First of all, I just want to say it feels so odd to be interviewed about those days here, but I can understand.

[Interruption]

JF: So I have a distinct recollection of my sister, who, at the time, had just joined a sorority. They do this rush thing, and then you're allowed, and it was a big deal for her. So she got in, and they had a meeting at our house. And I was living at home at the time, I was a freshman at UCLA. And I think I went into the house, into my bedroom, passing by all these sorority sisters at the house at the time, and they all turned towards me because they heard the door open and they were in the middle of something, and they saw me enter my bedroom. And I just kind of acknowledged them but didn't say anything. And after their meeting was over, I hear a little tap on my door, and it's Marilyn Hamano, who I'd never met, but she was one of the sorority sisters. And I didn't know who this person was or anything. So she introduces me, and she comes into my bedroom and we're sitting on the bed talking to each other, and she's telling me about, "Oh, yeah, your sister said you're also at UCLA and you're a freshman." I said, "Yeah." I was afraid she was going to ask me to become a, something with the sorority. [Laughs] I was kind of halfway listening to her and half expecting something else. But she winds up talking to me about this Campbell Hall and how they started up this Asian American Studies Center. And so I said, "Oh, okay, sounds pretty interesting." At the time, I was aware of Asian American history, mostly focused on the injustice of the immigrants from those early years during the late 1800s, 1900s. But hadn't taken any formal history classes, I don't even think they existed back then, but I was just reading.

So I wound up going to Campbell Hall, going up there, and just by chance, I think, the first person I meet is Stuart Kuo, I kind of remember that. And he starts talking about some of the things that they're involved with up there, and it sounds kind of interesting. So I just started to hang out there. This is the end of my freshman year, going into my sophomore year, I didn't know a lot of people there, so it was a place to go and meet new people. I wound up making friends with folks like Alan Nishio, and he was there, Stuart, and I was roommates at the time with Bruce Iwasaki, and so the both of us would hang out there a lot. And then I remember Steve Tatsukawa, Alan Ota, some of the other folks up there. And that was the connection that wound up transferring over into the newspaper or Gidra. And that's where I met Mike Murase. At the time there was Amy Murakami... can't remember the other regulars right now. But yeah, used to hang out there with Duane Kubo.

BN: So you said this was... was it towards the end of your freshman year?

JF: Yeah, that's where I met Marilyn and started...

BN: Did you start in '69 or '68?

JF: I started there in the fall of '68.

BN: '68, so this would be the spring of '69, more or less.

JF: Yeah, probably didn't... well, yeah, end of the spring, beginning of the summer of '69. I don't think I went to the paper until '70.

BN: Your first byline, your first staff appearance is summer of '70.

JF: Okay, I think Mike mentioned there was a, kind of a turnover that took place about a year in, and it was just about that time. Yeah, I didn't know who the originals were except for Mike and Tracy.

BN: Right, right.

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