<Begin Segment 14>

BN: So I guess transitioning then to the redress movement, I guess what was your first, when did the first inkling of that concept come up to your recollection?

KM: I feel like I was at some gathering, and the Nisei person, guy, could have been... blanking on his name.

BN: Edison?

KM: Edison. It could have been, I don't know, but it was a large gathering, and I remember hearing reparations being mentioned and talked about, and I thought, oh, okay, that sounds interesting. And it sort of stuck in my mind from that meeting, but it didn't come up a lot. So it was like that time, and then really nothing after that. So it was kind of early, I think. I want to say it could have been mid-'70s, something like that.

BN: Yeah, Edison first introduced the concept like at a JACL convention in 1970. Could have been early '70s or mid. Then in talking to Issay, you mentioned the formation of this committee, I guess, with LTPRO?

KM: It wasn't a big committee, but I think Alan and a few other people were on it. I can't really describe the connections to different things, but we met at the LTPRO office. What were we talking about? I think that's maybe where the idea of having that workshop in Boyle Heights came up. There was also, of course, LACCRR going on, the Los Angeles Committee Coalition on Redress and Reparations that several people that had been in camp were part of, and they were going around and talking to different people. Were they part of LTPRO? I don't know.

[Interruption]

KM: So we were talking about the LTPRO reparations committee.

BN: Then actually, I thought that they were one and the same, was it LACCRR? But they're different?

KM: Los Angeles Committee on Redress and Reparations. That's not quite right, but LACCRR. No, it wasn't quite the same, I don't think so. Because I was not part of LACRR necessarily, because they were mainly people that had been in camp. But we were supporting LACCRR for sure.

BN: And LTPRO was primarily younger people?

KM: Yeah, except for Bert and Lillian and then Alan who'd been born in camp. Of course, they took the lead in that area. But I don't think the committee was that developed, so probably LACCRR was the main force that was doing a lot of the pre-NCRR type education and outreach. I bet Alan knows better than do on this one.

BN: What sorts of things were you doing in the LTPRO committee?

KM: You know, I don't remember much of the LTPRO committee. I really remember doing more like, in East L.A., and it was kind of a coalition that did the Day of Remembrance. And so our East L.A. Outreach Committee and several others did the Day of Remembrance in Little Tokyo on Central, what was then Central Avenue.

BN: Were you doing Days of Remembrance before NCRR?

KM: Well, yeah. I think that was...

BN: Because the first one was only like '78 or something like that in Seattle.

KM: Yeah, so this is one that maybe Phil refers to, is the one that was pre-NCRR.

BN: So it must have been '79 or '80?

KM: Something like that.

BN: That would have been the very first one in L.A.

KM: Yeah, it would have been. And it was a coalition of groups that did it.

BN: Kind of like now.

KM: Yeah, that's true.

BN: Do you remember much about it?

KM: The DOR?

BN: Yeah.

KM: You know, I see pictures. I don't know if I remember exactly what was happening. It was much less, it was like people speaking kind of like on a platform, not casual but less formal. I shouldn't say less formal, because there were speeches.

BN: And I know a lot of the earlier ones had marches or things as part of that...

KM: And the ones that were later in NCRR, a lot of it was vigils and marches, definitely.

BN: But this is after the formation of NCRR?

KM: Yeah.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.