<Begin Segment 2>

JH: Oh, well, questions of redress and reparations, I think there've been divided opinion on in the community about that. But for those of us who've been involved in it from the very first, think it's a very important thing to clarify the issues as to what it means for us. I think... and then there's been quite a bit of argument over whether there should be reparations or not. And I've always felt that it's very important in our society anyway to recognize wrongs done in the past by establishing some sort of reparations for the wrongs committed.

GH: Yeah. The other side of the thing is if something is declared to have been unjust, but no compensation is associated with it, the reaction in our system is, "I guess it wasn't a very serious wrong." And from that perspective, redress should be substantially a large sum, relatively speaking, because it was a very gross injustice.

JH: Well, I think that insofar as the Sanseis are concerned, also, I kind of think that it's symbolic. Again, something that has some meaning to outside, outsiders and some meaning for them. Something that's more or less physical, I guess. Something that you could see. And I think this is why reparations is an important thing in the redress issue.

GH: Well, the Sanseis, when we say Sansei, they're, we're talking in your case about those who are aware and concerned. They're angry; they even get to the point of wondering why more voices weren't raised earlier. But then the bulk of the Sanseis, population-wise, they think they're blended in, and it won't be in until they run into some injustice by being considered Japanese because of their face, until they begin to have some second thoughts. Currently, the relations of many of the Sanseis are quite good. It has given rise to statements like "out-whiting the white" and so on. They feel they're Anglo Americans.

JH: Well, I think, many of them will realize when special instances come up, and the most recent and most blatant act has been this Vincent Chin case where a Chinese is being mistaken for a Japanese and then clubbed to death. And then the perpetrators of this just really getting off with just a slap on the, on the wrists. I think that the Sanseis will recognize that there's something wrong about this and that really that this racism is still extant in our society.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 1983, 2010 Densho and Steven Okazaki. All Rights Reserved.