<Begin Segment 24>
FA: You wrote a document. Did you write this: "An Appeal for Action to Obtain Redress for the World War II Incarceration."
SS: That's right. That's right. That's what kicked off that thing. Kicked off the whole thing.
FA: I brought a copy.
SS: Oh, thank you.
FA: Why don't you go ahead and read that little paragraph near the bottom that I, at the bottom of the first page. I've highlighted that... the yellow highlight there. Can you read that for me?
SS: Oh, the yellow? "By custom and tradition, any American who has been injured as a result of false accusations is expected to bring those responsible into court and obtain a judgment clearing his name and awarding him monetary damages from the offending parties. Failure by the slandered or libeled person to take legal action against his accusers is often regarded by the public as an indication that the charges are true."
FA: Strong words for the time.
SS: For the time. And I think that's one of the sentences that kicked the JACL in the butt where they deserved to be kicked.
FA: What was the reaction when this statement was circulated among all JACL chapters?
SS: There wasn't any real opposition to it.
FA: Really?
SS: No, there wasn't. Not that I remember. I would have remembered it had there been any open opposition. Oh yes, some weak-kneed statements were being issued at that time. Yeah, people like Marutani.
FA: Bill Marutani...?
SS: Yeah. One other thing that I should bring up is that I, I was... [pauses] darn, my mind has disconnected again.
FA: Well you and Henry sent out copies of this Appeal for Action and a video -- an audio tape.
SS: Audio tape, that's right. That audio tape idea was Henry's.
FA: Because, as I recall, he felt people wouldn't read the statement so he wanted it played.
SS: That's right. Yeah, at the meetings. And it was played at some meetings, including the New York chapter. And one reason they probably played it is because I was quite active in the New York JACL and I had quite a few friends over there.
FA: Do you think that the rank and file Japanese American was a little... you said there was no reaction at the time. No reaction at all? Was there apprehension or...
SS: No, there was some opposition to my position, weak-kneed opposition to it. But after all, I had stated the truth as I saw it and there was no way they could rebut what I had written. I know some didn't like it, I'm sure. But that, that stuck in the craw of a lot of the JACL old-timers.
FA: Before I met you at the first Day of Remembrance, did you feel the issue was going anywhere? Resolutions were passed at successive JACL national conventions.
SS: Oh yes, those were being totally ignored.
FA: 1974, 1976.
SS: Yeah, they were being ignored by the JACL leadership those days.
FA: Even though the successive conventions had passed these resolutions calling for redress?
SS: That's right. They still sat on their hind ends and did nothing.
FA: How did you feel about that?
SS: Well, naturally that disgusted me. I didn't keep all the papers that I wrote...
FA: We have them.
SS: You have them?
FA: We have them.
SS: Oh, okay. [Laughs]
FA: With the Day of Remembrance, there was a lot of attention then paid to the issue, people started talking about it.
SS: That's right. That was...
FA: The issue was brought more to the national forefront, Congressman Mike Lowry introduced a bill in Congress that was...
SS: I wrote the bill, original bill.
FA: Tell me about that.
SS: That I gave to Lowry.
FA: Mike Lowry.
SS: Yeah, I wrote the original bill, it was changed quite a bit and you know how long it took before we got anything and in between we gradually increased the amount. We first started out at $15,000 plus so much a day and later on we stepped it up until -- had they gone through with our last suggested amount, they would have gotten $30,000 instead of the $20,000. But reducing that to $20,000 I think that was just a JACL trick, Sakamoto. Not Sakamoto, but...
FA: Masaoka.
SS: Masaoka. Yeah.
<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.