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TI: And why don't you tell me a little bit about the redress process in San Jose. I've asked this question in San Francisco, Los Angeles, I haven't really asked, or know much in San Jose. So what was going on in San Jose?

RK: So, again, the pilgrimages were kind of the things that occurred first, and then after that were yearly Day of Remembrance programs. And I'm not sure what year the first DOR program was. It might have been '80 or '81, somewhere in that timeframe. And the Day of Remembrance program was for -- at that time, there were still some Issei around, and I can remember having some Issei even part of the program and speaking in Japanese and translating. And it was a pretty big deal for us because, you know, we got involved in terms of getting the two churches involved. We used to actually walk from one church through Japantown to the other church, so we'd have a program at one church in the beginning, and a program at the other church to end, and in between there'd be this candlelight walk through Japantown.

TI: And why was it important to get those two churches involved?

RK: Well, they were the two big religious institutions.

TI: And what were the two churches?

RK: The Buddhist church and the Methodist church. And as it turns out geographically, they're both on Fifth Street, one is north of Jackson, one is south of Jackson. And doing the walk between the two churches seemed to make sense, at least for the first few years. Eventually it became just centered, holding at the Buddhist church gym and just walking around Japantown and back to the Buddhist church gym. So the DOR programs were important in terms of educating ourselves, the community, others in the community about the whole internment and incarceration issue. And then it was even used during the redress campaigns. We'd have, like, letter writing or whatever as part of the program. And so then the DOR programs continued on a yearly basis, and then the redress work was kind of interspersed throughout the year as far as having house meetings, doing other kinds of programs related to redress.

TI: And how did NOC work with the other organizations dealing with redress? So JACL, NCRR, NCJAR.

RK: So NOC became the NCRR affiliate, we were part of that kind of organizational structure. And there were opportunities where NCRR organized lobbying trips to DC, so we would do fundraising and send some people, some of our members. We sent some veterans, internees, and Sansei that went on some of those trips. And then obviously the Commission hearings were a big deal, organizing local testimony, whether they be Japanese-speaking or other Niseis to go up to San Francisco and testify.

TI: And so what was the relationship with the JACL during this period? Because in Seattle, the local chapter of JACL did a lot of that in the Seattle area, so we didn't have an NCRR, sort of, affiliate.

RK: So generally speaking, the DOR, the Day of Remembrance programs were co-sponsored or endorsed by the JACLs, the JACL chapter down here. Some of the stuff in terms of going, organizing testimony was pretty much NOC or NCRR driven. There may have been individual JACL members were kind of were involved, but my recollection is that most of that was organized by a lot of the NOC people down here.

TI: And was there... what's the right word? Fighting over turf around this? I mean, in terms of the JACL and NOC about, say, the hearings? I mean, that was, in most cities, a really big deal. And controlling that or -- not controlling, not the right word, but making sure it really worked was an important thing for the community.

RK: I don't remember the turf issues, I just know that there were a lot of NOC people that were involved with trying to organize the testimony and make sure there were some Issei participation in that. And I remembered one of our members, Julie Hatta, was bilingual, so she was trying to work with a lot of the Issei to encourage them to participate.

TI: Did any of your family members or close friends testify during that time?

RK: So my dad testified not at the hearings that were at Golden Gate University, but there was a community hearing they had in San Francisco Japantown, and I remember he decided he was going to testify at that venue, so he made a statement of some sort.

TI: And how was that for you to have your father testify?

RK: It was pretty cool, actually, to hear him talk about it in this very public way.

TI: And do you recall what he said?

RK: You know, my recollection of exactly what he said is a little vague at this point, but I can remember just thinking, "This is good. This is good that he's speaking out here."

TI: And what did you talk with your father, after he did that, what kind of conversation did you have with him?

RK: Again, I'm not sure that we had any real extended conversation about what he had said.

TI: That's cool.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.