Densho Digital Archive - Fred Oda Interview (denshovh-ofred

<Begin Segment 22>

FO: But anyway, one thing was, I guess you're too young to remember Sparky Matsunaga, he was a congressman.

TI: Yes, from Hawaii. Yeah, Sparky Matsunaga from Hawaii.

FO: He gave a speech there that the newspaper had the next day. He had the audience in the palm of his hand and edge of the seat waiting for the next word to come out. And by god, when he went to, he was a second lieutenant in the 442nd then, I mean, 2nd Infantry. But when he went to Congress, old-time Congress guys said, "This is the best speech I've heard since I've been here," when Matsunaga spoke up. And these guys been there, what, thirty years or so, these congressmen. So you could see he's quite a speaker.

TI: And so Sparky came to Milwaukee and gave a talk?

FO: Yeah, to speak, yeah.

TI: And were you there?

FO: Yeah, well, that's when I heard him. That's when I heard him. And I thought to myself, "Gee, I didn't know there was Nisei like this."

TI: And so at that time, he was an officer...

FO: Yeah, lieutenant in the 100th Infantry, I guess.

TI: So before he went to...

FO: He was a guest speaker, yeah. Then after that, he was a congressman.

TI: Do you recall what Sparky was talking about in his speech?

FO: What was the subject now? [Laughs] But then later I found out that he and, whatchamacallit, Inouye, Dan Inouye, they're both Harvard graduates. And they, I guess they majored in English and speech and stuff, too. 'Cause my brother in San Jose, he kids his Hawaiian friends there, "How come you guys can't speak like those guys?" Because the other guys, you know how they talk: "I go, you go," and all that stuff. [Laughs]

TI: Yeah, no, you're right. They're both very eloquent when they speak.

FO: Oh, yeah.