Densho Digital Archive - George Koshi Interview (denshovh-kgeorge-01-0031)

<Begin Segment 31>

MU: The other thing was, were you active in JACL at all?

GK: No, I was in the army all the time.

MU: Oh, okay.

GK: After I got discharged and came back here in 1974, then I joined the JACL, here. I didn't do too much. But I'm a member of the local JACL.

MU: Oh, good, okay. Okay, George, kept you for some time now, but one last question or two. You know, you've lived through a lot, lots of turmoil and everything, but you've lived through it. How do you feel? You feel like you've accomplished something, personally?

GK: Well, I feel quite satisfied with my part in the evacuation, postwar evacuation and current days. Because, I was already an attorney when the evacuation, war started, and I was able to use my legal background to assist Issei and Nisei in resettlement after the evacuation. And then, helping out some of the people in service, who had their parents in the camps. And they had the resettlement program -- problem, afterwards, and most of these, I was able to help them. Most of them, as a pro bono. Because a... well, just a consultation, (...) as a social conversation. And helped them out with the... whatever settlement problem they had. And I'm very satisfied that I was able to do so. And especially to Issei group -- because of my language background -- I was able to help them directly in their language, to explain their situation, and help them with the execution of their rights.

MU: You feel pretty good about all that.

GK: I think so. Maybe it was over... patting myself on the back, but --

MU: No...

GK: -- then I thought, I came at the right time, with the right (background), for the occasion.

MU: The other question is, what is your religious preference?

GK: I was born in a Methodist family.

MU: Okay.

GK: So I've been a Methodist all my life.

MU: Did that have any influence on your life, how you looked at things?

GK: Not particularly. The church... I'm not such a religious (...) person. The church organization, I consider more as a social organization than religion.