Densho Digital Repository - Robert Katsusuke Ogata Interview (Densho ID: ddr-densho-543-31)

<Begin Segment 31>

PW: I'm going to change gears, I think we're going towards, back to some Japanese American stuff. In 1988, there was the passage of the Civil Liberties Act, which awarded Japanese Americans reparations and redress.

RO: Right, right.

PW: And I know that there was a story... well, first of all, were you at all involved in the redress movement when that was happening in the early '80s?

RO: Not... other than the fact that there was a person that had, who was a part of... what's the Nisei group?

PW: Japanese American Citizens League?

RO: Right. And they called me and they said, and they knew that I was a potter at that time. They said, "We're going to award the senators and the people that were involved in the passage of redress before the Congress. We would like to then go ahead and award them with something from the Japanese community." So they called me and said, "Is it possible that you could do this?" I said, "Well, I don't know what I can do." So then I did a piece for them to see. I said, "Well, this is what I think might work as a gift." It would be put into a handmade box to be presented at the time with the redress. So then I showed them and they said, "Wow, great. Can we have ten more?" Well, I can't remember, I guess, about ten. So then I hurriedly tried to do, a body of work. There were these particular large plates. I told them that they were all going to have some difference in the way, because of the position in the chamber of the kiln and so on, but also the way you make marks and whatever, but they were generally the same. So I finished the pieces, they came and picked them up, and then they had this thing before Congress where you have Senators and representatives that were then awarded, they were instrumental in having the redress for Americans.

PW: Was this the Fresno JACL?

RO: Yeah. Well, they were the ones that contacted me, so apparently it was okay, I guess they responded then to the national and said, "Well, this is what we're doing."

PW: Did you go to the ceremony?

RO: No. I thought they might invite me or something, but no. So it happened and so then it was one of those things where, again, being in the right place at the right time, I never would have expected that.