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LG: So what's -- shifting a little bit again -- what different roles have you played in JACL?

TM: Well, I was chapter president, I was EDC, or Eastern District Council governor. When you're governor of a district council, you then serve on the national board, so I served on the National Board. And when I was there, one of the presidents, the first, actually, the first woman president, Ellen Kimura, when she was elected, she appointed me as education chair. So at that time, with the committee I worked with, we put together the first Asian American Experience curriculum, and started teacher training workshops, and went around the country to do some of those. And now I'm on the board of the local JACL, and I'm the recording secretary. So those have been my major contributions. But I think ever since I joined, you know, I've been in some capacity. And I was just thinking about the Japanese House and Garden, although I was in on the founding of the Friends group, because I was so involved with JACL, my attention really wasn't necessarily here. I did do work times, and I brought my classes here and visitors here et cetera, but it wasn't as involved. There were other people who were retired and volunteered.

LG: Were you involved in the redress effort?

TM: Yes. The redress effort was spearheaded by Grayce Uyehara, she became the lobbyist. She retired early from her job as a social worker, I think from Lower Merion School District, and decided that there needed to be someone who mounted the campaign to get redress, so she went and lived in Washington. And so this was a hub, Philadelphia chapter was the hub since she was so associated with it, and then Judge Marutani, he also was the only Japanese American on the presidential commission. So he, with the commission, went all around the country to hear the testimonies for a year. And so there are people like the Watanabes and the, there were so many, the Ikedas and the Endos and the Horikawas all these people really worked on redress. And went to, well, they told their stories, but also tried to get other congresspeople to support you.

And I think I was EDC governor at that time. So EDC was the hotbed of action then because the West Coast had senators and representatives, the East Coast did not. So they really wanted to make sure they had people on board to support the legislation, and Grayce worked really hard on that. And there was Grant Ujifusa, who was from New York but worked in D.C., I forget his exact title, but I think he put out a yearly congressional report, and so he knew all the players. So he worked with Grayce to get a lot of the East Coast senators and representatives on board. And so a lot of it was counting, you know, who do we have in our camp, how many votes do we have? And they got Representative Jim Wright, who I think was Speaker of the House at that point, because of his association with the "Lost Battalion" in France. And I think they worked on a person in Georgia, who... I think one of the either senators or representatives, his secretary was Japanese American, and so they were able to get him on board. So, you know, it was all those behind the scenes, you could see how they were working, and they were working. And as I think one book is titled, The Impossible Dream. People didn't think it could ever, would ever pass, but it did. I mean, they really work strategically on that.

LG: How did you feel when it did pass?

TM: Well, I think I was at convention, National Convention, when we were given the news. And you know, it was a glorious time, everyone was really excited that it did pass because it was, as I said, it was an impossible dream. And I remember talking to my mother about it, because my father had died by, at that point. And my mother, it wasn't the money for her, it was the apology. She said, "I never thought I would hear or get an apology from the government." So I think there was pretty much elation because people had really worked hard.

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