<Begin Segment 34>

LH: So then the time that you spent with your children really was a learning time for all of you?

MS: Oh yes, that's why I'm so grateful that Mako involved me, and then because of that the kids all got involved. But the biggest learner out of that was me. Because I began to realize that I was really going through a denial process, trying to pretend I was an American and by being American I had denied that I was Japanese at all. And that was a revelation to me. So therefore I kept working in the cultural heritage program. It became a career almost, and as we developed further on, we saw how important it was not only so that kids don't go through that because I had spent so many years of my life into that denial. And here I was now just slowly beginning to realize some pride in that part of me. And I began to get more involved into the community and the civil rights organizations and etcetera. And that's why I got eventually involved in the JACL.

LH: Can you tell me a little bit about... well, when did that happen?

MS: Well, actually, I started working at the same time we were working on the cultural heritage program. I started going to meetings and listening to what was happening, and I was amazed. All this activity going on and so therefore after about ten years of going through this, some of the older folks there said, "You're an old timer now, really, so you ought to start taking some positions of more responsibility, not just coming."

LH: Within JACL?

LH: Yes, so I started out as a historian, maybe chairing some projects that only lasted a short time. But I was really in awe with the leadership that was in there, the older Niseis that were there were wonderful people during that time that had to be the forerunners. Because it was under their leadership that the redress movement even started. The Seattle chapter was the one that initiated that, and I was part of that time. I was a very small part of that, though.

LH: How were you involved?

MS: Well, at the beginning, we were on redress committees, and then eventually I did take over one year as president of JACL. And the exciting part of that was, that was the year that redress was granted to the Japanese Americans. It was the year that I was ending, so it was wonderful.

<End Segment 34> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.