Densho Digital Repository - Martha Watanabe Interview (Densho ID: ddr-densho-1020-3-2)

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EK: And how long did you work for ORA?

LJ: I worked for ORA from '89, the summer of '89 until the program ended, so I think we were still doing the last of verifications and payments up through, close to 2000, right? So wow, a long time. [Laughs]

EK: And was the program set up, as far as the verification goes, when you started, or were you a part of those early days?

LJ: It was still being set up. JARVIS was the first computer system we used, and that was still, I think, in the final stages of development. They were still setting up at that point how cases would be tracked, logistically how files would be kept, all of that stuff. So in the beginning, I was literally doing things like labeling file folders for internees' names and how the whole system was going to be set up. So things were pretty much in process, but it was still pretty early in the program, so lots of systems, I think, were still being developed at the time.

EK: And JARVIS stands for?

LJ: Oh, Japanese American Redress Verification Information System.

EK: So could you talk about the evolution of your role or your responsibilities throughout your time there?

LJ: It started from the basics to filing, and like I said, I was young, and filing and labeling, and just kind of helping logistically get things set up. By the time I was out of college and working there, dealing with cases directly, calling people to get more information, taking their paperwork in and helping to verify whether or not somebody was eligible. We had a three-step process. And so in the early years I did a lot of the initial verification. Was somebody eligible or not, before it got passed on to the next level of review. And then as the program went on and we started to do more outreach, I did everything from setting up the logistics of those outreach workshop visits to helping people get verified, to working with them directly when we were out on visits. And then as the program went on and we shrunk in staff numbers, doing a lot of the, a little bit of everything then, because there were fewer of us then, so dealing with payments, I did a lot in the last several years of the program, working on payments directly. I remember taking trips to the office where the checks were all cut and picking up large boxes of twenty thousand dollar checks, and a wing and a prayer, coming back to the office to get them all mailed out. So dealing with the mailings of the payments and the apology letters. So a little bit of everything.

EK: So you had mentioned kind of that three-step process.

LJ: Yes.

EK: Could you talk a little bit more about that?

LJ: From what I recall, we had some cases that were very straightforward. It was easy for them to meet the eligibility requirements, they had the birth certificate they needed, they had the marriage certificate they needed. We had record of them on internment lists. It was very easy to match up. They signed their statement, we labeled them good to go. They got signed off on it, passed along, and then we had some cases where there were additional... and I don't remember the exact layout, but we had stage one and stage two and we had cases that then ended up with our attorneys that were more complex. Either they weren't listed on a roster, the camps kept relatively detailed and good rosters, but we always had cases where somebody wasn't there, there was a, might have been a name change that we couldn't verify, or they didn't have documentation they needed. And those cases went for further review and then either ended up with the attorneys or ended up with a lot of back and forth to try to get enough information to show that somebody was eligible.