<Begin Segment 20>

BN: Who taught that first class?

KM: Well, how I ended up in this little grouping of people that were talking about a community class. Neil Gotanda was one of the people, and I think he taught it because he was around. I really don't know who taught it, frankly, because I think it was a joint class. It's so vague to me, I don't know where my head was at. But it was like we had San Francisco State people in the class. I remember Rich Wada was in the class and became kind of good friends with him. And Kaz Maniwa, I feel like he was teaching the class, because he was kind of one that was talking the most. But it was all really kind of semi-student taught, right? And we were going to San Francisco, we went to San Francisco State, we heard different people speak, visited different community events, organizations. And I remember Mo came up and talked to our class, and I remember looking at his shoes, I don't know why I was looking at his shoes, but just everything was so new for me.

BN: You're talking about Mo Nishida?

KM: Mo Nishida, yeah, he came up with another person, and they were, like, so different. But it was an exciting year, or exciting quarter, I should say, because there were sensitivity groups going that I went to, and that's the first time I felt like, I guess I like these people now. They're okay, they're not like... even though some of them, in fact, that same guy that I had a blind date with, he was in this sensitivity thing, and I thought, you know what? I have compassion for him, he's okay. Even he was okay. So it was like, it was great. It was great because I finally started to feel like I liked Japanese Americans, and I liked being Japanese American. Even though I didn't really learn much history, except through the community stuff, nothing was written, we didn't have a book, we met in each other's apartments, I cooked, we cooked for each other, stuff like that. So Asian American Studies was really good. I met a lot of people that I still, from Northern Cal especially.

But I kind of drifted away from that grouping, because I ran into a guy that I liked -- Issay will love this story -- that I had gone to Japan with. And I really liked him even then, sort of like a far-off kind of thing. A Chinese American, he was kind of an artist guy. So he actually, driving up the street, I was going to sell some books or something, I was driving down, he's walking up Telegraph, "Oh my god, there's that guy, hey." And then we reconnected. And that took me away from Asian American Studies. But it was always in my mind, it had done its work. And then I think because my sister was a social worker, she met some people that were Japanese American, they were organizing Asian American social workers, so she was part of that group with Jim Miyano and other folks that were organizing people. So she told me about that, and she told me about the JACS office. So in the springtime, I came home, and I went down to Little Tokyo to the JACS office that I met Ray Tasaki, who was originally part of Hardcore, I think. He said, "Come on in," and he had an afro, "sign up." And I said okay, I signed up to be a volunteer, and never heard from again, but I signed up. And so I said, "Okay, I'm going to come back here when I graduate."

BN: And this was spring of '70s?

KM: It's the spring of '70, and because that was Cambodia, invasion of Cambodia. So we were shut down, so Berkeley was shut down. I stayed in Berkeley, but I got involved. Because the whole campus was involved. I wasn't necessarily involved in Asian American Studies, I was involved more through my psych class because we had a really progressive professor. So we were doing everything around antiwar, war stuff. The demonstrations on campus, the first time we were being face to face with machine guns, and the national guard, stuff like that. Even if you weren't political, you became political. But we were doing stuff in our psych class, like organized people did leaflet at Fort Bragg, for example. I think I signed up, but I never ended up going. I ended up making "peace pretzels" all night long. I made it for, like, two hundred people in my psych class. I can't imagine who that person was, but you know, passing it out in the class. But that was the atmosphere, and everybody was fine with it. So just remembered the demonstrations and being part of it, SDS, and I feel like I heard Richard Aoki speak, because I remember some guy, but all if it was kind of a blur, because it was so intense. So that was my year. And so, of course, on top of already having lost a quarter of school, that was one year I had to stay. So I stayed an extra quarter at Berkeley from the fall of '70 to December, and I was living at the I-House. Again, I kind of said, "I don't want to stay in this house with friends. I mean, it's nice, but I think I need a break." I think I also broke up with the guy that I really liked. And so it was kind of into my, like, feeling sorry for myself kind of mode. Said, "I'm going to live at the I-House, do something different, maybe meet some different people, be my lonely self," and then getting into transcendental meditation. So I did my little solitary trip thing, and I lived there for a quarter. So it was fine, met some people, and then I took... what was it called? Now I can't even remember what I took, but it was a martial arts. And I remember people saying, "Don't go back, don't go back to L.A., stay in Berkeley." I really loved Berkeley, and if I hadn't broken up with that person, then that was still the circle of people, I would have stayed, but it was like, again, why would I stay? I said, "I'm going to go back to L.A. I know there's things there, I'm going to go back." And I think it's home. So that's kind of... kind of the year.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.