Densho Digital Repository - Joanne Chiedi Interview (Densho ID: ddr-densho-1020-5-7)

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EK: So I'd like to move now to the first check presentation ceremonies. Can you talk a little bit about what those were like?

JC: Nervous. So we sent invitations out to, I think the top, may have been top fifty or a hundred individuals that we paid. Of course, we paid the eldest first and worked our way down, because again, we really wanted to pay, we didn't want anyone to pass away who was alive on August 10, 1988. We wanted them to experience the apology letter from the President, three Presidents, actually, I think, through the program, and the twenty thousand dollar payment. We sent out invitations for individuals to come to this ceremony here in Washington at the Department of Justice, and Attorney General Dick Thornburgh was there to also present checks. So it was a lot of coordination with the community leaders, we brought a lot of community leaders in, it really was a celebration ceremony for them, not for us. And the oldest woman who came in for her redress check was a hundred and seven years old, and she's pictured over there. And I'll never forget Dick Thornburgh kneeling down, presenting the presidential apology, it was just... I don't think there was a dry eye there, it was great. I even get sentimental thinking about it. But I wanted to remember her name, so I think I actually looked it up, so let me see if I can give her credit. Because traveling here at a hundred and seven is a pretty unbelievable thing. Oh, I thought I wrote it down, may have to follow up. But it's somewhere, it might even be in the, some notes in there. But a hundred and seven, there was a woman or man at a hundred and five, a hundred and two, so it was a hundred club in the ceremony there. But it was a celebration of the program and the people. And then I think we had two check ceremonies, if I'm not mistaken, or a couple, maybe two or three. And it really was for the individual to know that, as a government, it meant a lot to us, so we wanted to celebrate those events, and they were well-received. And it was, again, another way for us to basically use those programs to also reach out to others who might be eligible. So that was another way of getting the word out that we're open for business, and please contact us if we haven't contacted you.