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BN: So I wanted to also ask about... and I learned this, actually, from Karen Ishizuka's book. That it was the big mobilization in Nisei Week, the '72 Nisei Week where there was the protests against the war. And I didn't know, she mentioned that you were one of the folks who worked on that comic that was distributed and that was also published in Gidra, I believe.
NN: The group that I was working with, and we were talking about it's time for a wakeup call within the Japanese American community because we have always just kind of buried our head in the sand as a community, so we're going to use Nisei Week as a shock effect to maybe start a dialogue within the community, good or bad. And one of the things I contributed to was we're going to have a Van Troi Youth Brigade that was going to march in the Nisei Week parade. I think their thing was go left, go right, now pick up the gun, along with all kimono dancers and everything else, NLF headband.
[Interruption]
NN: A meeting with Greg Fukuda, which is my homie, and Bruce Iwasaki who was Mr. Brains, and myself, who's Mr. Irrelevant. The three of us put together, it's almost like a comic strip thing, comic book, it's called "Is That Right?" or, "Say What?" or whatever. And it was talking about being a youth in the community in relationship to the Vietnam War. And it was used for, I guess they had political education classes for young people that wanted to participate in the demonstration. So that was one of the committees that we had. I guess during that time, we had study groups, and I think as veterans, that we could share our experiences. And I think for myself, one of the things that was dear to me was that my youngest brother, that I got him to sign up and be part of the NYC program, and he chose to work at Gidra. My brother's a piano player, so they loved him because he could type, he could do that typesetting quick, man. They loved him over there. So he was one of the, him and Eddie Kochiyama, they were, along with Herman Lew and I guess Chiemi Tabata and Gary Fujimoto, and a host of others, they were part of the young leadership for the Van Troi Youth Brigade. We basically took instructions from them. My brother was my boss, my younger brother was my boss, so they basically organized themselves and taught themselves, and it was a really great summer. Because not only they were working, but they were making connections and developing their own value system. They partied hard, too.
<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.