Densho Digital Repository - Kathy Nishimoto Masaoka Interview II (Densho ID: ddr-densho-544-21)

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BN: And then you're putting on Days of Remembrance throughout this time period?

KM: Yeah.

BN: Did you have a sense of how they evolved or changed over time?

KM: Yeah, I think I worked on every DOR to a certain point, like maybe... I didn't work on the 50th, and then after that, worked on all of them until a certain time. But a lot of it it early was, like you said, the vigils. We gathered at the plaza, we'd have candles, we'd march through Little Tokyo with the Issei, Issei were marching, helping other Issei, and we marched to the federal building one time. We ended up at Koyasan another time. And then when we partnered with JACL in the legislative work, then we moved inside to the Japan-America Theater, because (JACL) also covered a lot of expenses. They had more money than we did. We did a lot of legwork, but they paid for it. But we always tried to tie in some issues that were, well, updating people especially on redress was part of our job at DOR, trying to do some organizing as well. Like I said, with the Hopi Navajo, try to bring other issues that connect and relate, Wen Ho Lee, we did another program with that issue. I don't know if we did anything on anti-apartheid with the DOR. But our inclination was always to tie in a current issue. I'm not sure if we did to 187, but I feel like we would have, and try to bring up the parallels, and the Japanese Latin Americans, of course.

BN: Was it like it is now where it was a coalition of organizations organizing it, or was it mainly just NCRR organizing it, or did that kind of evolve?

KM: NCRR was a coalition, and I feel like we were much more of a coalition initially. The DOR's... I think it was more of a coalition initially, but then it became strictly, for a period it became NCRR and JACL. And then it expanded again later, when we moved to JANM and JACL.

BN: Was there ever any disagreement about between you and JACL about this speaker or this topic, or was there pretty much an agreement on the content?

KM: Because JACL wasn't really that involved in it. I'm trying to remember if they ever disagreed with anything. I don't think so. JD Hokoyama was a JACL person. And I don't know. I mean, we did a program on Michi Weglyn, but that was kind of organized a lot by the draft resisters and Frank Chin, who didn't really, a little conflict with him. But I don't remember if JACL objected to that one or not. That might have been the only one. I don't recall them, and they were pretty much supportive, because, again, we were doing the legwork for most of them.

BN: And then how long were you co-chair of NCRR?

KM: I was co-chair that last period of time, from like '87 to about '90. And then we went to... and then I kind of went to another period of removing myself for a period, like a few months. I kind of felt there had been an issue around the decision that we were making within NCRR, and I felt disrespected by one of the other people in the group that was rather significant, and it was over the draft resisters and a program that we were having with the 522. And I felt... well, I didn't feel, but we were having a program on the 522, the group that liberated Dachau, and Saul? What's his name? Eric Saul.

BN: Eric Saul, yeah.

KM: Eric Saul wanted to have Harold Harada on the panel with the other speakers. And Harold Harada was an avid, not an avid but a rabid anti-draft resister person. And so Frank Emi had called me and said... Frank Emi never asked for anything. In fact, when we went to Washington, D.C., he said, should he go? He asked the group, "Should I go? I don't want to be a detriment or a harm to the redress movement if I go as a draft resister." And so he said, "I won't go if that's the case." And we all said, "No, you should go, you should go." So he never asked for anything, and this time he said, "Do you think we could not have Harold Harada on the panel?" This is our panel. And so I said, so then I was at some gathering and I brought it up, and I was kind of belittled. I don't know. I was belittled. Not the idea, but I was belittled and then I wasn't really hurt, but we ended up not having Harold Harada, which was a good thing. But that experience kind of said, you know what? I don't know if I want to continue in this because I felt like it was sort of a male chauvinist kind of experience, and I felt really devastated. So I kind of stepped back. And even though I was supposed to, we were going to have president and co-president. So I said, "I'm not going to run for those positions." It was supposed to... anyway, I just said no, and I kind of retreated for a bit. But the work is the work, so you come back.

BN: When was that... about when was that?

KM: We had our ten-year anniversary in October of 1990. Sometime after that.

BN: Okay, so in the '90s.

KM: Yeah, it was a little bit after that, because that's when NCRR also became Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress, kind of the following year, I guess. And then that was... 1992 would have been the 50th, huh? So 1991 might have been when I stepped back, because I know I consciously did not work on the 50th, I said I'm not going to participate.