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BF: We're going to skip a little bit ahead now, since we don't have a lot of time, unfortunately. You were -- you've been introduced at this conference a number of times as a long time JACLer. How did you, and when did you get involved with JACL?

CT: I think it was about 1950. And I first got involved by -- I was on a membership committee or something -- in those days we used to go house to house canvassing for members, you know. And that's how I initially got involved.

BF: And this in Chicago now?

CT: In Chicago, yes. Right.

BF: What attracted you to the organization?

CT: Well, I was always interested in the organization. And my father was very active in the community in Portland, and, I mean, it sort of, it was something I just kind of expected to do. So I was always interested in the community. And JACL seemed like the appropriate organization to join.

BF: And when you first got involved with JACL in Chicago, what sort of activities, or what was sort of the kind of the goals of the group at that time, as you recall?

CT: Well, that was just right in the midst of when they were trying to get the Walter-McCarran Act passed, and we had a anti-discrimination committee that was raising funds to lobby to get this bill passed. And you know what the Walter-McCarran Act is?

BF: Why don't you tell us a little bit further.

CT: The Walter-McCarran Act, well, the thing that we were interested in is the fact that our Issei parents would be able to become naturalized citizens, and this, of course, was very important. And also to change immigration laws, so that the Japanese could immigrate here. Well, I think one of the worst things was that if you were born in Canada, you had to come to the U.S. under a Japanese quota. You were not considered a Canadian. That was the kind of thing that this Walter-McCarran Act changed.

BF: So it sounds like the Chicago group was fairly political. Lot of the, it seems like a lot of the other JACL chapters at this time period were a little bit more social.

CT: Yeah. Well, we had social activities, too, but you know, we had a lot of strong leaders in Chicago at that time. Dr. Thomas Yatabe, he was, they always called him the grandfather of JACL. He was the first national president of the JACL.

BF: Oh, I didn't know that.

CT: Yeah, he was, he lived in Chicago. And people like that -- there were a number of outstanding people there. And we had a lot of good leadership and, you know, most of the people were single at that time, and had a lot of energy, and they were enthusiastic, and all these factors really helped and we had a big chapter at the time because --

BF: Oh, really?

CT: You know, there were about 25,000 people came to Chicago from the camps. But gradually, of course, they all went back to California, because they couldn't stand the weather. [Laughs] But there were a number of them still around at the time and so... yeah, we had a lot of energy, and we had a lot of activities, we had a national convention there in 1950, and many, many people coming to it.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.