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EK: Are there any others whose contribution that you want to mention, either mention or expand upon?

AG: I mean, I think that you'll eventually connect with him, but the way that Bob Bratt really managed everything. When I think about now what my own SES director has to deal with, and he doesn't deal with the emotions of people. Like when you sit and you think about, okay, he was dealing with the emotions of people in a very stressful and trying situation, and he's got to make sure Department leadership understands what we're doing so that whenever we put in money for passback and when we go to (the Hill) that they're still always giving us what we need in terms of the resources. He's got to deal with the community who he is not of the community. So there was always the side eye to him, like, why are you so interested? And any kinds of darts that could be thrown at him because he was not of the community, and then still establishing those bridges to get people to trust him. And I think that when he said, "I will get back to you," he got back to you. And it wasn't that he called on DeDe or he called on Joanne or he called on anybody to see, he did it himself. And so that model that he did, translates to Joanne. Joanne gives it to us, we take it on to the next generation. Now, some of the next generation under us of servant will pick up on it, and some won't, and that's okay. I'm sure there are people who, "Oh, yeah, I worked on that program, it was okay." Others really still live it, still engage with it, still feel it. I am tickled when I get a phone call from somebody that's asking about, "My mom got a redress payment in 1993, and we just found this paper." Or sometimes it's, "Can you tell me about it?" I've had that phone call. And in it, because Tink Cooper and I have talked about, okay, where do you want me to stop in the line? They have my name for a reason.

I was in San Francisco three years ago, maybe. I took my mother with me, and she went to a museum where there was a JA5 exhibit, and my name was in it. And she's reading and she's like, oh. And then she calls me and I'm in class, and I'm like, okay, we're in California and my mother's calling me, "Mom, I'm in class, what's going on?" "Honey, I'm in a museum and your name is here." I said, "Yes, Mother, I know. I got to go back to class." "Oh, okay." It was the cutest thing, because then she's telling the people, "Oh, that's my daughter." I'm like, okay, really? You're not that old. But that's nice, that makes you feel good to know that what you did twenty years ago still is having an impact, and you're still able to make a difference and show people. My hope would be for those that are experiencing stress with our current government, I won't even say administration, will at some point in time know that we were, and that we can do right by it, that we can do right by it. It may take some time, and it will take a lot of organization, but I don't know that the original organizers thought, in the late '40s... they knew it was wrong, they knew something had to be done. But if they were here to look back and say, "These were the children that I birthed, this is the good that I did." There's a song I remember when my grandfather died, "Let the Service That I've Done Speak For Me," and I think about that with Redress. The service that we did for all facets of the Japanese community only made the rest of the country better. Because we have shown that we can recognize our faults and make an effort to make it better.

EK: Thank you, Angela.

AG: You're welcome.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2019 Emi Kuboyama. All Rights Reserved.