<Begin Segment 5>

EK: Do you think that the political climate affected the administration of the program in any particular way?

LJ: Well, it was interesting, I was just talking to some friends about the program and they were talking about why, when we've had historically other groups who have been mistreated, why this one occurred. And I said I think, at the time the law was passed, I think there were some very influential people in Congress who really worked to get it through, I said. And it's interesting, it was interesting to see, because the program ran, the administration of the program ran longer than anybody anticipated, so we ran through different presidencies. And I think it was interesting to see how politicians kind of came and went, and some were more involved than others, but I think once it was established, I don't think there was a huge then political influence, but it's interesting how, I think, there was so much political influence in the beginning to get it going, and then luckily it was maintained. Because it did, it definitely took longer to administer. And I think we found more people than anybody ever expected us to find. I think the estimate was sixty thousand we'd find, and I don't remember what the final number was, but it was beyond that.

EK: Eighty...

LJ: I was going to say around eighty thousand, right? Which was great, but I think... so luckily I think it was so well-established by that point, even though kind of in the end there were fewer and fewer of us working on it, it was helpful to have had such a strong base in the beginning, and support for it.

EK: Because we had to go back for additional funding.

LJ: We did. We had to go back for more funding, and I remember that being a... let's see what happens, maybe we'll get it, maybe we won't. And luckily, I mean, it would have been terrible at that point to not be able to finish out what had been started. Especially since those final cases were the ones where, those were the thick files, those were the ones where it took, in some cases, years to be able to verify someone.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2019 Emi Kuboyama. All Rights Reserved.