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MM: So then the year after statehood, 1959 to 1960 was your sabbatical year that you waged. And you went on to, to receive the Helen White Reed Congressional Fellowship, where you spent a year in Washington, D.C. What was that like?

RK: Oh yeah, that was a memorable year. There was the year of statehood, and I was lucky enough to get a congressional fellowship. This is a program sponsored by the American Political Science Association, and they chose young political scientists from around the country. And the year that I got, I was chosen, they also branched out and got, you know, not only young political scientists, but political reporters. And they also chose them from the Far East. So we had from Japan, Thailand, Philippines, Hong Kong. We had these people come, India, join us, American political scientists and political reporters. And that was a good program. We got assigned to, half the year to member of the House of Representatives, and another half of the year to the Senate. And as a political scientist I thought I should know how Congress really operates, you know, important political institution. And this will give me the inside story. And it was a delightful year. We, we had -- it was a good program. We met with all the well-known people in Washington, congressional officials, people of the press, and other people that were really opinion-makers. At the same time we were assigned to congressional offices and we did research and so on. In the House, for some strange reason, I ended up with a, working for congressman, newly elected, from Vermont, who was a Democrat, which was an anomaly in Vermont. His name was Meyer, and he was a real gentleman, an excellent person, but he was a Quaker and a pacifist, and he was very critical of the then foreign policy of the United States, and it was a wonder that he got elected. But I got a very interesting perspective sitting in his office, as to how Congress operated and how he was treated.

On the Senate side, I thought I should get more into the center of power. So I talked to Dan Inouye and to Jack Burns. Especially Jack Burns, they knew Lyndon Johnson well. And Lyndon Johnson was that all-powerful majority floor leader of the Senate. And lo and behold, I did get my assignment, but Johnson's office is huge. And my assignment was with Bobby Baker, his number two man, his operator. At any rate, so I got this beautiful office right off the Senate floor with two or three chandeliers. That's really was a magnificent office, there was a huge desk. And mainly I did letters for Johnson on education. My favorite line is, you know, a lot of teachers would write suggesting this or protesting that, and I had a standard letter with a standard opening: "As a former schoolteacher I agree with you," or blah, blah, blah. [Laughs] I did a lot of that stuff and I ran errands here and there. It was interesting to sit there and to see who came in to see Bobby Baker, you know, all the influential people. I see a big lobbyist from Hawaii coming in and he's embarrassed to see me because he's coming in with crates of macadamia nuts -- [laughs] -- pineapples to give Bobby Baker to give to others. But I got an interesting view.

And that's the year that Lyndon Johnson decided to run for president. So one Monday morning I come in and his able secretary, who really ran the office, said to me, "Dick, I'm afraid you're gonna, we have to move you to the smaller desk." I said, "Oh?" She said, "Yes, Oscar Chapman is coming in, taking your desk. You may have heard Lyndon Johnson's gonna run for president and Oscar Chapman is his chief coordinator, campaign manager." So that was an interesting story. And so I had to help with the Johnson campaign. And Johnson was going to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to do something, give a talk or something. So they said, "Okay, Dick, you get all the facts about Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, geography, climate, history, everything." So I pick up the phone and I called the Library of Congress. "Lyndon Johnson's office, send me materials, information on Coeur d'Alene." In about two or three hours two pages come with book loads of materials on Coeur d'Alene. And I told myself, gee, when I worked for Representative Meyer, it took two days for them to respond. [Laughs] So, here's another aspect of Washington.

And another delightful story along these lines is, there was a page who was assigned full-time, young high school kid from Bobby Baker's native state, which was North Carolina or South Carolina, I forget which, but very, he was a high school kid but he was already six feet, two and hundred and ninety pounds. He was a big kid who loved to throw his weight around. He was a nice boy but he said, "I'm gonna be a Bobby Baker," anyway. And he said to me, "Where do you park?" I said, "Oh, I have to park in the, I still park in the old House, two blocks away." "Oh," he says, "I'll get you a parking pass, you can park in the capitol grounds." [Laughs]

MM: And was he able to?

RK: He was.

MM: Did you ever get to see Johnson in action?

RK: Well, on the floor, in a sense, but mainly a very limited way, and I really met him only three times, I think, when I first went in to get introduced, and once I went in with someone on something, but not really. It's a very casual, he wouldn't remember me at all. Oh, the thing that was interesting, too, was, not only did we get statehood, but Hawaii wanted to establish the East-West Center, which was a university faculty initiative. So there were, besides myself, there was an economics professor, good friend, Bob Kamins, who worked for Oren Long, Senator Oren Long from Hawaii. And he led the -- but he was the one who helped to write the legislation, but I was there, too, to help. And what Johnson did, was because in many ways he was known for his domestic policy but no international experience. So here was something that he could wear (on his) hat and say, "Look, I'm interested in East-West Center and it's an international thing for friendship." So he snuck it into the Mutual Security Act and got the East-West Center started. But some of us who were on the Capitol, on Capitol Hill knew about the concept and could help draft the legislation. So that was another interesting episode in Washington.

<End Segment 30> - Copyright © 2004 Japanese American National Museum. All Rights Reserved.