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BN: You mentioned, when we did our pre-interview, that in addition to this excitement about what was going on in terms of the Asian American Movement and so forth, you also saw some problems in the community as well with regard to youth alienation and drug use and so forth.

NN: Yes. I mean, it was during... to take a step back, I just didn't come back and develop any type of political awareness. It was a process, and it still is, but when I came back, it was kind of a feeling of self-liberation feeling, too, like "free at last." And like I said, that I didn't feel any kind of hostilities or bad vibes between, within the community, also within the city. I think, at that time, I felt like I could I could go anywhere in the city and feel safe. It was a good feeling, and I figured I had all this behind me, I finally got discharged and just trying to enjoy myself in which I did, and I had friends, I still dabbled in some sports, I was going to school, collecting the GI Bill, I had me a little car right there. There was always some type of activity or party to go to. I wasn't heavily into drugs anymore, but I still would smoke a little bit or drink some, but nothing out of control. And so life was good.

And I stumbled, I went to this, I think I mentioned the name Pat Sumi, so I guess it was during, it was during that time when I was a student at Cal State L.A., I was doing very well in school, that one of my friends took me to Long Beach State where Pat Sumi was speaking, and she kind of talked about her, not trip, but her delegation to North Vietnam, and I think it was with a progressive group, they had Panthers, they had people from the Red Guard in San Francisco, so just a delegation of activists or revolutionaries from the United States, and she was talking about what was happening in Vietnam from a liberation perspective. So provisionary revolutionary government to Vietnam and what was going on over there and their commitment to rid their country of any foreign invasions, meaning that there was a history of, I think, hundreds and hundreds of years of foreign intervention, and the U.S. was the last ones to try to colonize the country. So anyway, after I learned more within listening to Pat Sumi, that I probably learned more in twelve years of education at L.A. Unified just about, things about what's going on in the world. And it's kind of like it was an epiphany in a sense where, what was I even doing there? Because before, I never really questioned it. I never really questioned it, but when I kind of saw it from the outside looking in, it was like what we were doing there not only was nothing to be proud of, and this is what we're doing. I mean, it kind of struck home, and in some ways, that I was glad that I didn't have the understanding when I was there, because who knows?

So I became a little bit more aware of things that were happening, and I actually saw, like before I would see people that were involved in politics, I guess they would call themselves movement people, whatever that's supposed to mean, that it was cool as far as what they were doing, but it ain't got nothing to do with me. So any kind of movement person would move aside. But I kind of saw that in a different perspective, and I don't know how I ended up at this Japanese American Community Service, the JACS office over at Weller Street in J-Town. But when I went there, there was a lot of energy, and it was basically like a young Sansei organization. And the people there that were doing what they call community work, it's kind of like what's up over here, and they were very serious and they were welcoming, but they were pretty get down too. So it was something that was, interested me in terms of, like, what was going on. And I ended up becoming a regular over there at the JACS office, which probably I spent a majority --

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