Densho Digital Archive
Frank Abe Collection
Title: Ben Kuroki - Shige Kuroki Interview
Narrators: Ben Kuroki - Shige Kuroki
Interviewers: Frank Abe (primary); Frank Chin (secondary)
Location: Camarillio, California
Date: January 31, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-kben_g-01-0016

<Begin Segment 16>

FA: You met, you met your wife through a fellow named Mike Masaoka. When did you, did you meet Mike Masaoka during the war?

BK: No.

FA: Really? Did you ever talk to him on the telephone or...?

BK: No, the only time I saw him is when he came to North Platte the day of Pearl Harbor. 'Course after the war, that's when I met him. I think probably more through Larry Tajiri with the Pacific Citizen, he'd been writing all those stories about me and he wanted to interview me and that sort of thing. And so I, once I met Larry Tajiri and then met Mike, and Hito Okada and some of the others.

FA: When you finally got to meet Mike --

BK: And so they were the so-called pro-JACLers, or the JACL kingpins. [Laughs]

FA: Were you a member of JACL?

BK: I wasn't until I got to running around a little bit with Mike, that's when I finally joined. And I don't even remember what chapter I joined. Just as a member at large, I guess.

FA: When you say "running around with Mike," what did you and Mike do together?

BK: Well, Mike was pretty active after the war, of course, with JACL. I think he was still executive secretary, I believe. And so he took me around to a lot of these communities and had me speak to 'em and that sort of thing to try to increase their membership.

FA: What kind of man was Mike Masaoka?

BK: Well, I think pretty much like my wife said. He was, intellectually he was pretty sharp.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 1998, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.