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EK: So what were your first steps at that point, then? You understood what a big undertaking this was going to be.

BB: Well, the very first thing that I did was, if you go back and look, it was a unique program and it said you had to identify and locate the individuals. So what I ended up doing was literally walking across the street to the National Archives to see their records. I heard they had records, and lo and behold, they had records. [Laughs] And so the first thing was, I felt like this was the first time, I remember when they said, "Yeah, we got 'em here. We made lists up and we've got addresses and we've got people's names." And I'm thinking, oh, my god, this part's done, check that off, we've identified people. But, of course, those addresses were fifty years old, and so the victory lap was short-lived. So there was a couple parts that really, if I had to kind of divide out where I initially approached the program, one was to continue to get smart every chance I could about the history of what happened, and the legislation, and what was the intent of the legislation. Looking at reading the congressional record and all, because that would give you a lot of hints on what people were thinking back then. So there was an education process for me personally that was extensive, more so than almost anything I can think of in my career where I really had to study and learn and read and use my brain, which, at that point, to study and learn. There was a whole component of the community, and finding out who was in the community and who the players were. I learned about JACL at that point, I learned about NCRR at that point, I learned about Aiko and her role, I learned Matsui and Mineta and the Congressmen and what they had done. So there was a whole educational part, and then there was the whole practical part of it was, okay, now what do you do, and how do you staff it, how do you oversee it, how do you ensure there's integrity in there? So it was not just one thing that I was looking at, it was a continuum of learning and reading and understanding and meeting people and trying to get  things going.

So in the very, very beginning, it was, we were working half days, twelve hour days, and trying to understand and all. So it was really balancing between running out here to the West Coast from D.C. and sitting down in different areas and having dinner with people or talking with people, to also going up to the Hill and speaking with the Congressmen also. And then also internally in Justice, I'm going to need forty or fifty or sixty people, where do I put 'em, and how do we hire 'em, who's going to oversee 'em and those type of things. So the very, very first parts of this were extremely difficult to get every ball up in the air. And then the whole time you want to create a decent first impression with people, you don't want to start off by screwing this up, I don't know how else to put it, in any way. So I also kept seeking out advice, and the people I respected most in Justice I would talk with them. Actually, my father was a senior guy in Justice, just retired, and I would bounce ideas off of him. So there were a bunch of people that were help for me. Again, I'm thirty-two years old or whatever it was, thirty-three years old, and still

relatively young for running and setting up the program. So I didn't at any time think I had all the answers to what needed to be done.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2019 Emi Kuboyama. All Rights Reserved.