<Begin Segment 8>

LH: Well, that is something, actually, I wanted to ask you. How is it that you...

GU: [Laughs]

LH: Really, I mean, you go from Philadelphia and you're working in the office there. But then how is it you sort of get into that...

GU: Yes, we were already into redress nationwide, and I was doing that as representing the Philadelphia JACL chapter. But I saw that there were so few of us, and it was only in Philadelphia -- that didn't cover the rest of Pennsylvania -- so you had to find people. You know, go to like the War Relocation Authority and, or among ourselves -- "Do you know somebody in Pittsburgh?" You know, "Where are some of our people living?" So you try to cover the whole state. Well, you begin to do that in New Jersey and then we had a chapter in New York. This sister who graduated from the University of North Carolina then had gone on to Smith College, so she was practicing in Boston and lived (near) Harvard, which is not too far from there. And another gal who also had been in camp and she was already smart enough to be active politically, so these people began to do their thing and they had workshops in the Asian American community, 'cause Boston's Chinatown is well-established. So those connections all came in to help. And so as the Eastern District Council Coordinator for the five chapters on the East Coast, I was already getting a lot of practice.

It seems as though when they made that decision in 1978 to proceed, they set up this lobbying arm, but you know we have to -- we're not fast movers, we people of Japanese ancestry. We don't act as soon as we think about something, everything had to be neat and to do it right. So it took until 1985 before fundraising started. And anybody with any sense of responsibility knows that if you are really going to mount a campaign and you intend to win, you have to raise money to have the ability to send out information at the right time, to go out and train people to do these kinds of things, and have the materials that they can use so that every person doesn't have to remake his wheel to fit into the program. Those kinds of things, those coordinated programs I learned as a member of the League of Women Voters, who have been very, very effective. Their major program was to have good information when it came time to elect presidents or governors, and they conducted series of radio and television programs and then training for all the membership and putting out materials. So it wasn't that I had to think through what is it that you have to do, because I had become active in all of these mainstream organizations whose purpose is to change what is wrong in America's system. So some folks in Washington -- and I'm talking about people of Japanese ancestry, the Nikkei members and people like Mike Masaoka. I knew him very personally, because he was one of the most dynamic speakers to come out of our community. We're not very verbal people, we don't have people who articulate as well as Mike can, but Mike was an exemplary orator. The other very, very top speaker was Min Yasui. Min Yasui was a dramatic, flamboyant, exciting speaker. He would just mesmerize his audience, because his feelings, he was able to unleash his feelings. Most people of Japanese ancestry retain a certain amount of control, but out of Min, it would just flow out, and you knew the anger and the suffering and all was felt by him personally. So that I had models. But when we didn't raise enough money, and had only $40,000 raised, then they needed somebody to go without salary.

And I... see, the word had gotten around that I had retired from the school district. I could have continued to work but this whole redress effort began to consume me because the Isseis were dying, and I was old enough at the time I left to know that the greatest harm was done to the Issei generation. Because what little they had gained was through such intense, intense pain and suffering, I mean, no other generation went through the same thing. Yes, like we couldn't get the job that we trained for, or people still, you know, say to you, no matter how long you've been in this country, "When did you come to this country? Oh, you speak English without an accent. Where did you study?" And finally, I'd begun to say that in all my speeches, that I will forever be a Japanese, all because of this face. So we realized that the educational program was going to be the major program. Because as I said to you, it's working in the school system and these intelligent teachers always wanted me to talk about Japan. And so one time I got so angry I finally had to say, "You know, I really respect you, and I always thought you were all very outstanding teachers, but I think somewhere in your education you just did not get it right, because," I said, "I am an American just as much as you are. It just so happened my parents came from the other side of the Pacific. And so if you wish for me to speak about the Japanese American experience and about racism in the United States, I will come and speak to the students. But I will not bring my kimono and my rice bowl and chopsticks -- [laughs] -- and do that kind of routine."

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.