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BF: So kind of related to this and also what you brought up about traveling around as part of this board and seeing different communities, do you feel that there's -- I mean, obviously each community is unique.

TM: Uh-huh.

TM: In what ways is Seattle's Nikkei community unique? Do you get a sense we're a different breed or --

TM: Yeah. I think Seattle is very unique in a number of -- historically, Seattle's one of the, next to Hawaii, they're one of the oldest Nikkei community, established community. LA, San Francisco, is not far behind. But I think Seattle, for whatever reason, could say they're, next to Hawaii, probably as old as any, one of those, so there's some history there. Seattle, I think, getting back to this Go West, Young -- I guess it's not Young Man, Young Person. But when you come to end of the ocean, you can't go further. Like Seattle, you tend to attract people that are, outspoken is not the right word, but you, you tend to attract people, this is the last stance, and this is my home. I'm not going to go further east -- I mean, west, because I can't go further west. So you tend to -- my theory, my thoughts are that, and this is not unique to the Nikkei community, but Seattle has become known as people that come from other places and make it a home. And if you make anywhere a home, you have different values and you fight a little more. And I think Seattle, not only from the Nikkei community because the community as a whole is considered very liberal next to San Francisco, and that, herein lies some of the problems we had with WTO. But that's another story. But those basic values have been reflected and vice-versa to the Nikkei community. So, and I think that's, people ask me and I ask myself, why did the JACL start in Seattle? Why was the redress movement and other movements been successful here? Seattle's known as kind of the rabble-rousing, kind of idea type. And I think basically the atmosphere of Seattle is conducive to that type of movement. So that's number one. Number two, we're of a size, probably like Portland, in that you know everybody. It's large enough to have a mass and economics. But you know each other, we tend to work with each other little better. In LA or Hawaii, it's impossible because everybody, everybody means well, but they have their vested interest and it's such a large, too large. So Seattle, unfortunately, has had that economy of scale that allows the resources, but the ability to talk to each other. It's not so large that -- so I think for those reasons -- and then, I'll be very frank. I think we have had a good, a bunch of leaders in our community too. I think that, that hopefully we're thinking outside their own personal family means or personal means, but kind of looking at the future. So for those reasons, yeah. If you read that book about Tacoma, when you look back, getting back to the history, Tacoma was very, very progressive in the promotion of Japan-US trade or cultural exchange. And the naval ships bypassed Seattle, went to Tacoma, and Japanese naval ships. And so, and Tacoma, as you know, also was one of the, not the strongest, maybe the only one, but they had a very good Japanese language school. So a lot of people, you come, my age, or from Tacoma, speak very good Japanese. So the cultural aspect before World War II maybe started in Tacoma but was shifted to Seattle. But the whole Bay area, I mean, the Puget Sound area, as I stated, reflects some of the thoughts I have about it.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.