<Begin Segment 8>

FC: You led, you led an effort to try to reconcile the resisters with the JACL and the community. Would you describe...?

CU: Well, at one time, what I did was I wrote, I felt that individuals, the resisters as individual cannot go to the JACL and say, ask for anything. It was for the JACL to really come out with a statement. Now, to me, the most ironic thing is that the JACL was asking our government to look back fifty years and they were saying that, "Yes, we thought that you, you thought that you were doing the right thing, but it turned out to be that you did the wrong thing. So why don't you acknowledge the fact that you did the wrong thing and apologize and pay redress?" The government did so. And yet the JACL to this day has refused to look back at its own history and say that, "Yes, we also made a mistake fifty years ago and we apologize for the mistake that we made, to our own people, that is." And so I remember one time, this was about three or four bienniums ago, I went to the Northern California District Council meeting with a resolution to, for the JACL to admit the mistake that they made against the resisters. And I handed it to all the candidates for president and I said, "Would you give me your comments on each one of those?" And that time, I thought it was very interesting; one Nisei who was running for presidency okayed it. It was a woman, she said, "I will support this if I ever become president." Another Nisei said, "I do not want to make that decision now. No decision." A Sansei who was running for president said, "I completely object to it." So here was one Nisei for it, one Nisei not making decision, and the Sansei was completely against it. I thought that was interesting.

[Interruption]

FC: What have you done to try to get the JACL and the, to reconcile with the resisters?

CU: Well, I thought easiest way was still... you had to do it officially, I felt that the official statement from the JACL national convention would be the most appropriate thing to do, because they speak for the entire JACL. If you have just the chapters, that's only one-one hundredth and fifteenth or so. So I wanted the national council to do it. But so far, the national council has not done it and they do not intend to do it, as I see it. I still feel very strongly that JACL must eventually, and will eventually, acknowledge the wrong that they have done towards the resisters. [Interruption] I still believe strongly that the JACL must acknowledge the wrong that they have committed against the resisters, and apologize for it. I think it will come eventually, I don't know when.

FC: How will the community benefit?

CU: The community would benefit because, to begin with, they realize that the JACL is not just living in the past. It has to live in the present, also it doesn't turn its back against a group of its own people. You have to try to understand them, and yet, to me, it's most unlikely because, unusual because when our own national government has acknowledged its error and its mistake and apologized, and yet the JACL as a small organization cannot even do the same to its own people, I find this very surprising to me. I just can't understand, quite understand why this is happening.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1998, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.