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EK: Emi Kuboyama here in Washington, D.C., with Aaron Zajic, May 17, 2019. So, Aaron, could you start by stating your name and giving us your role or title with the Office of Redress Administration?

AZ: Well, my name is Aaron Zajic, and my role when I first started, I think I was a file clerk. I progressed from file clerk to the team lead for, I think it was called Team 2 Evaluation or something like that. And basically as the cases were processed through to eligibility and payment, or possibly needed to get sent back to the potential recipient for follow up, for more information, we had a group that would just basically look to verify that the person who was applying had some historical record that we could track them down, whether it was the little index cards that were in our file cabinet, or some of the other documentation that could show that this person was also one of the folks that was listed on one of the camp rosters or one of the little index cards. And we would often look at birth certificates because when they were on the camp roster, they were listed as who were their parents. So if they provided a birth certificate, it had the name and date of birth, and the parents all matched, we were pretty sure we had the right person.

EK: And I understand that this was one of your first jobs after college. Could you talk a little bit about where you went to school and how you ended up in this role?

AZ: So I went to school at, it used to be called Western Maryland College, now it's called McDaniel College. It's a small liberal arts school sort of in central Maryland. And after I got out of school I was working at the beach in the summer, so I went back to the beach because I didn't really have a job lined up. And this was in 1987 when I graduated from college. Then I worked at Macy's, I was in a factory, and then I got a job at a sign company working installing and designing signs. And it didn't pay very well, so at night I was working at Macy's. I met a friend of one of my buddy's dad, who knew a person that worked at Department of Justice and said, "Hey, I hear of this project that is looking to hire. So I applied for the job and I think I got lucky, and I got the job. I had a funny story, on the way to the job, I was going to meet a friend for lunch and I got a flat. And I had my nice suit from Macy's that I had gotten at a Macy's discount, and I got soaking wet and filthy because it was kind of raining and slushing. By the time I got to the interview, I was way too late to meet my friend for lunch, but I didn't have a cell phone back then, because I had to change a tire. When I got there, the person that was interviewing me noticed how wet I was, and I think that came to my benefit because most people have an excuse for not coming because they had a flat tire. I actually had the flat tire and made it. So just maybe my bad luck of a flat tire was good luck in that I was covered with dirt a little bit.

EK: Do you remember who it was that interviewed you?

AZ: Alicie West Simpson. I have completely lost track of her, I don't know if she'll remember that, but I definitely got a flat on the way to the interview.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.