<Begin Segment 15>

TI: You told me earlier, before the camera, that you didn't attend the opening ceremony, because part of this thing goes back to what you said about the local Nisei not wanting to pat themselves on the back. You helped out with that, and you helped out with the Kashino case, and just an observation that in a similar way, you probably don't like to pat yourself on the back. But it sounds like you were a key player in both those projects, and were probably not acknowledged in the newspapers or at that ceremony. But one question is, how, why do you think it is that you don't like to get patted on the back?

BT: There's several ways of looking at it. One is that once you start getting your name out, publicity, that anything you do after that, they're gonna say, "See, he's looking for added glory." And that kind of takes the steam out of what you're doing. So I prefer to stay in the background and just see that what I'm doing is completed successfully.

TI: Okay. So on future projects, people know that when Bill Thompson gets involved, it's really to get involved to make something happen, not to get publicity for Bill Thompson?

BT: Oh, definitely, yeah.

TI: So people know that and they respect you for that.

BT: Yeah, keep my credibility, let's say.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.