<Begin Segment 9>

KO: And I haven't mentioned the parties because... yes, I did mention after the CLA was passed, but after each community meeting and each large event, if it were just a little community get together or a meeting in Washington with the ORA, we would always go out for beer and food afterwards. And so I think that was key also, to the affection for the ORA and the people who worked there. It was being able to break bread together, share water, beer, whatever we were drinking. And just recognize each of us as regular people wanting to do the right thing, so it was a really important part. And in the book, NCRR's book, Bob Bratt was the only non-community person of our local committee, NCRR committee, who was invited to write about the redress and reparations and working with the ORA, and he did, bless his heart. Submitted an article, which, he would always talk about after a meeting, the best part was meeting Bert Nakano down at the bar to have a beer with him. And I'm telling you, those two were quite a picture, laughing and just talking the talk, talking story to each other. And it just sort of typified or signified that relationship, that the feelings we had for Bob and that were reciprocated by him.

Do you want me to tell you about when we were really disappointed with Bob Bratt? Yes. He was such a huge disappointment when he left the ORA. I was just crestfallen. I couldn't believe why he would do this, but of course I knew, he was being promoted. We understood at a certain level, intellectual level, that yeah, it was a huge opportunity. He had done such great work, why should he not be advanced? But it was a terrible blow. He assured us that he had, his key people were still in place, and that's how I think Joanne became, I was going to say the backbone, because although she continued through the different directors, she was always there as well as you and Lisa, Tink, Aaron, other people were there, too. But by then she had become a real wealth of information and experience, and lots of credit to her. And for Bob leaving, we were mad, but we got over it because we had a huge celebration for him, everybody wanted to celebrate the fact that he was being promoted.  He had done so well for us to get the program off to an excellent start. Huge celebration at a hotel in Little Tokyo, the Miyako Hotel, ballroom was full. People were mad at me and NCRR because we hogged Bob Bratt. We sat with him, we just kind of ran the program, and people did have some hard feelings, but that's how, what we thought about, how we felt about him. And he probably has, in his closet, more plaques and plates and awards that we had given throughout those years, especially at that particular event, but just small tokens of our appreciation. But I think that it was a challenge for him, for us to get on without him because each person that came on as director was someone that we had to get to know. And they were at a great disadvantage because the program was rolling and we didn't have the opportunity to get to know them quite as well. I know that Paul was only there for a short time. I think that Deserene was only there for a short time, and we worked a little longer with DeDe, and certainly she was terrific. But I have to say that I'm not sure who hired DeDe, but it all worked to our benefit because we could see, although we didn't get our way all the time, we didn't get everything we wanted as far as the reparations to specific people and categories, I think that we knew that these people were good people and had our best interests, and had to balance that tricky road of the bill and its interpretation, so that's a whole another segment of our meeting during the '90s. Are we in the '90s? Yes, we are.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2020 Emi Kuboyama. All Rights Reserved.