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GU: But the money did start to come in once I started to send out the articles. And these articles would say, "So and so representative has come on as a sponsor." And as you kept publishing the list and the names from other places began to come on, then the money started to come in. So it was in, the first meeting with the team in Washington, and as I said at this conference, was in Senator Inouye's office, and of course he is a senior of the Nikkei members of Congress, so we always turn to him first. Second meeting was in February of the following year and that was when my time, the commitment I made was to end. So we really had by that time, I think about $250,000, so the issue that we had talked about earlier was that we were going to have, employ a professional lobbyist, 'cause we had to get this bill through, too many Isseis were dying. Senator Inouye turns to me and to the group and says, "We don't have to find a professional lobbyist, we have Grayce Uyehara." Well, when Dan Inouye said that, then it was like, well, it looks like, you know, I have to stay with it. And of course Bill Marutani also had made a statement to me personally that the Nikkei community has really not given redress its best shot. We were just sort of playing around the edges. You know, people talk about it, they do something about it, but it wasn't an all-out effort.

And I guess eventually with various groups, other groups also beginning to really get excited that it looks like things are going to happen, more and more groups came into it. And, of course, Bill Hohri made the choice of doing it through the courts, and that's our American system, isn't it? That all of us have the right to make choices, and so people could align with any group that they want and follow through with how they wanted to fight for redress. But within JACL we had a strategy that was worked out by Grant Ujifusa, because he is the guru. But then, there also, fortunately for us, were the four Nikkei members of Congress. And theirs is a daily experience right there on the hill, and they talk with other members of Congress each day. So I always felt most comfortable with the advice that the four members gave. Because they'll say, "Well, so and so is coming on, can't you find somebody to really give it a push?"

I'll give you one example of a push. The state of West Virginia, can you imagine the state of West Virginia? I guess none of us would go there, right? Now there's coal miners and whatever else, so Harley Staggers is on the judiciary subcommittee, and he's a nice guy, his father was a former congressman if I remember correctly, and he's a graduate of Harvard, a very well-educated member. And one major problem -- his legislative aide said they haven't received one call, not one letter from anybody about HR442. Now, the Congressman really believes the cause is right but the way things work in Washington, you're going to hear from your constituents if you act on a certain bill. Well, the Congressman felt that if he heard from some of his constituents, he could say, "I heard from my constituents that I should support the Japanese American Redress bill." So then that meant... and this was repeated over and over, that's part of the whole strategy. I call Tom Kometani of New Jersey, who is very active in his Methodist church (where) he spoke of (redress), I also told him Harley Staggers is a Methodist. You have to, you have to get the information about a congressman that will be useful for your coordinator to do some follow-up. So he went to his bishop for this Northern New Jersey area, and being a bishop, it meant that he gets to all the national meetings and things so he would know more people. Bishop said, "Oh, yes I know the minister, the bishop of that area and also the minister. And so through that contact, that network, letters came to Harley Staggers' office. Another, a judge who went to Harvard also. And then I spoke at the University of Pittsburgh, and fortunately this teacher asked me to send him articles or information about redress, because he wanted to follow some and put it into his curriculum on U.S. History. So I was told, "Just get half a dozen letters," 'cause I thought I had, you had to send a whole lot, but no, he can say he heard from his constituents. And I understand at least that a dozen letters came in, okay? So that's an example.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.