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EK: So you mentioned archival research, can you just talk a little bit more about when the need to do additional archival research might have arisen and what was found?

JC: Yeah, I think the archival research, I started in April of 1989, and that archive research started way before, like I think as soon as the bill was signed, August 10, 1988. And there was an incredible staff, I remember Alice Kale, who spent a lot of time at the National Archives, she actually came up with the notion like, we can have this simple verification process if you had an internment record or a government record, a record of where you evacuated from. My time was spent very early on when I started in April of '89, I went to the National Archives here, I went in California, I went in Seattle, I went in every state. Basically, wherever I was, if they had an archive, I was in their library, because every one was a little different. And no one thought I would go back to the library after graduating school, but I was there. And we actually found some nuances, like we sort of realized about the Japanese Peruvians, we discovered the Hawaiians that lived in these parts of the island where their movement was restricted or they lost property. We found out about Crystal City, Texas, because usually what they would do is they'd take the men, the FBI would come or the War Department would come and they would, if there was a man in the household, or a young man in the household, they would take them out of the house, and then their family would follow. So we found out about all of these pockets of individuals that were not in the original Act. But it was... I mean, I spent hours at the National Archives, and again, just amazing, the records that were there. Presidential letters, Roosevelt letters, letters between Roosevelt and the attorney general and the head of the War Department, mayors, governors. Because we had an issue with people who were fired from the railroad, Japanese Americans who were railroad workers, and we were trying to determine if they were fired because of a presidential order or because it was a decision that the Union, I think it was Union Pacific at the time, made. And we never found anything from the government.

EK: And that was important because the eligibility required federal government action.

JC: Right, right. So we tried, we interviewed many railroad workers, Union Pacific executives at the time, people who may have some knowledge. But again, this was a class of individuals, unfortunately, you somewhat knew, but you knew that they were not going to be eligible. I remember one letter that Roosevelt, President Roosevelt had. It was like this documentation, because there was discussions about interning Italian Americans and German Americans. And later there was a redress of Italian Americans, but it was a report that we put together. And I remember vividly reading this letter and saying that if you were to intern the Italian Americans, what would happen to our opera houses and our restaurants? And hey, I'm an Italian American, I was shocked at reading that, I was surprised. And how are we going to determine if they are Italian or Irish or some other descent? Because even during the internment period, I remember this one kid, maybe you'll remember his name because someone mentioned him, I think he was... was he Filipino?

EK: I think he was Mexican American.

JC: Mexican American, and he went to the internment camp; that's where his friends were. And I don't know if he was forced to leave at some time, but I just remember that story.

EK: I think he was, they eventually found out and he was asked to leave.

JC: Yeah, so that was interesting. But there were some, like, Chinese Americans, Philippine Americans, they were just gathered up, and it was sad.

EK: So I just wanted to clarify one point about the archival research. So this is not online research.

JC: No.

EK: What did it look like?

JC: Okay, so it looked like a lot of paper that you had to be very careful with, because acid started already basically crumbling the paper. I mean, it was binders and folders and boxes. I just remember hundreds of boxes, a lot of paper cuts on your fingers. Had we been smarter, we probably would have worn some type of gloves, which I'm surprised they didn't make us wear any type of gloves because of the oil on our hands and everything, naturally. But it was literally reading hundreds and hundreds of pieces of paper, and when you think about reading a lot of documents, you would get sleepy, but we weren't sleepy one bit. Because what you were reading, if anything, your eyes were wide open. You're reading history that I'd never learned when I was in school. I think now they're starting to teach what happened during World War II, but I think we were so ashamed of what we did to citizens of our country. But it was almost like reading history books of something that I was not aware of until I became part of the redress program.

EK: So you have young kids, so have not spoken to them about the work that you did in this area yet?

JC: Oh, yeah. I mean, my kids are three and five. [Laughs]

EK: But at some point?

JC: Oh, yeah. No, the five year old, I think what I do with them is more of tolerance, of just, "all people are different, they have different backgrounds, they have different traditions, we all don't look the same, and we have to respect our diversity," is basically my message. Oh, I will proudly tell them what I've done in this program, I mean, it's unbelievable. And even here, working here, my colleague asked me if I would sit and talk to his daughter who was doing a thesis on the redress program. And I thought, wow, that's really great. Because movies and things of that nature didn't come out 'til later, I was just like, this is really cool. It's getting the attention it needs, and I started reading about how it's now being part of elementary school education and high school, because there's more information out there that we probably haven't even... I'm pretty sure I touched almost every piece of paper that had to do with the redress program, I'm pretty confident about that. Between boxes and microfiche, which I'll never forget the sound of people going through microfiche, there's a distinct sound of the machine.

EK: Because we had them set up in the office.

JC: Oh, we had, like, dozens of machines and people sitting in front of them all day long. But I'm proud, though, to say, the War Department, now Department of Defense, kept unbelievable records. The detail of those records really created the basis of the redress program.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2019 Emi Kuboyama. All Rights Reserved.