Densho Digital Repository
JACL Philadelphia Oral History Collection
Title: Paul Uyehara Interview
Narrator: Paul Uyehara
Interviewer: Rob Buscher
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Date: May 22, 2023
Densho ID: ddr-phljacl-1-24-8

[Correct spelling of certain names, words and terms used in this interview have not been verified.]

<Begin Segment 8>

RB: The other thing you mentioned, that Yellow Seeds, and I'm curious, were you the connection point to Yellow Seeds or did someone else do that outreach to all who came?

PU: Well, it's funny, because had this argument at my household for decades that I thought it was my wife that came, but she denies ever having been in Oberlin. [Laughs] So I don't think I was the connection. I mean, I do remember meeting people from Yellow Seeds when I was in college in Philadelphia, but that was later on. So you know, I don't think I was the one who arranged that. it might have been the counselor coordinator person, or one of the older students.

RB: And so you mentioned that you did actually, though, afterwards, meet some of these organizers? I'm just curious if you have recollections of Yellow Seeds at that time period, what you thought about them, whether your parents were aware of them, any other conversations that were happening?

PU: Yeah, so I think in 1976, which is the bicentennial year, my recollection is that summer, we hosted a meeting for Asian American students at my house, and my family's house in West Chester. And just probably kind of stayed in touch with people, and I think we invited incoming students from that area to attend also just to meet some of us. And I think we did some activities with Yellow Seeds where we'd go down there and I think we were leafleting and stuff, because there were a lot of protests, and it was pretty controversial because I'm pretty sure that Rizzo was the mayor then. So there was a lot of kind of heavy handed policing that was planned at the time. They were kind of afraid there were going be these huge protests and so on. So I remember going to the Yellow Seeds office and meet some of the people. And we met some other people who were kind of like us in the sense that they were also students, maybe from other places besides Oberlin, who got connected to Yellow Seeds and we're doing activities with them.

RB: Can you describe the Yellow Seeds office and community space?

PU: I just have this vague recollection of this unremarkable storefront in Chinatown, that was pretty basic as far as what they had there, and some of the young people that were, belonged to an organization and they put together a newspaper, it's a bilingual newspaper that would address the issues in Chinatown and distribute that and build relationships with the community and the local businesses and everything. And I think, at that time, just as there is today, there were development issues that people were getting into fights about, including the Vine Street Expressway.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2023 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.