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BF: So, tell me a little bit about the lobbying that you had to do. And by lobbying, I mean, in the community -- trying to get community coalitions built and trying to change hearts and change minds. Did you, did you end up sort of having a strategy or a tactic for how to get, how to bring people on board?

CT: Well, you know, I think if you, you work with what you've got. Let's put it that way. And you know, getting Congressman Porter, John Porter, it happened that the Akis invited me to come and speak to their church, and having this, it was -- people talk about timing. I mean, here this man was sitting in the audience, who was a fundraiser for Congressman Porter. And, you know, just like that, he became a supporter. You know, these are the kind of things that just happen. Yeah.

BF: And you never know who's gonna be out there.

CT: That's right. That's right. You went out and spoke to groups, and you never knew what was going to happen talking to groups, because you were never sure of who was in the audience. And then some people, you know, once in a while you'd go someplace and talk. And this man or woman would come up to you later and say, "You know, I'm going to get my church to write letters for you," or... these are the kind of things that you depend upon.

BF: Do you have any memorable anecdotes about meeting up with, let's say, the opposition? Where you had some people come up who weren't quite so supportive?

CT: Well, you know, one of the things that I meant to say when I was talking this morning was that, in a way we had an advantage because we didn't have any Lillian Bakers in Chicago or around the Midwest, because they didn't, most of the people didn't know anything was going on so therefore we didn't have that element. But I went to speak to some firemen once, believe it or not, and there was one man, he raised his hand and he said, "But you people punished," no, he said, "You were very cruel to our prisoners of war." See, there you go, where they don't differentiate between the Japanese enemy and the Japanese Americans. So you do occasionally run across something like that. But you know, it's kind of amazing how those situations were few and far between.

BF: So it was a real different process, more educating than sort of beating the opposition?

CT: Yeah.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.