Densho Digital Repository - Ryan Chin Interview (Densho ID: ddr-sjacl-2-25-6)

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CN: So kind of along those same lines, in your opinion, who are like the three JACL, Seattle JACL chapter leaders who you think have had the most impact on the chapter and why?

RC: Okay, well, I mean, the first one is Cherry Kinoshita, Cherry, really... oh man, she's, she was like a bulldog for redress. She worked so hard with Mike Lowry, who was one of the lead sponsors in the House, for redress. He was Seattle's representative. That took years and years. And it wasn't only that, it was like, getting recognition for some of the staff for Seattle Public Schools, and how they were discriminated against as a result of that. So I just, I mean, redress was not a fast moving deal. It was like ten to twenty years of just grind before the wall kicked in. So just to have that much dedication, because, like, especially in times like today, where people have shorter attention spans and they have so many more things occupying them, it's hard to fathom how you stick with something that long that you're not getting paid for. You're not getting, it's not your livelihood, you're raising a family at the same time. So I will put Cherry at the top. That's kind of funny, I didn't mean to put it that way. [Laughs]

Who else would I put up there? You know, there's a lot of people that I could say that would predate me pretty far. But I... so I really respect the people that have kind of, just speaking on a firsthand account, I respect the people that kind of keep the torch going. Because for me, what happens is I tend to burn myself out. So I do look at people like Bill, and I look at Elaine Akagi, and it's just being able to kind of maintain that continuity and like do the right thing and keep the organization going, that is super powerful. Like when I joined JACL because it was so entrenched in older generations, those people, they would be in the organization for, like, decades, decades, they would do their thing. So we had like a banquet committee of like, twenty to thirty people every year that ran this fundraiser for like, four or five hundred people. I mean, it's just hard for me to fathom now. And part of it, like, dovetails into my thinking when I was president is like, okay, given the changes in our society, it is a concern, how do you maintain that continuity? How do you maintain that the torch will keep going on? So I do, I admire people like Bill and Elaine, who have like kind of kept that going after the prior generations aged because I don't know where the organization would be, post me, if that didn't happen. I've seen plenty of other organizations that were also like, kind of built in a different time, like started like, pre '60s or whatnot, and they've kind of faded out. And if they haven't faded out, they don't have that continuity, or that bridge between the past and the present, which, I don't want to harp too much on the past. There's eternal, great gratitude there. But I always want to be forward looking. So that's there. But it is important to have certain aspects of at least noting what has made the organization valuable in the past, and what has made it successful in the past, retaining that. Because if you can't retain that, then that there's a good chance you'll falter in the future, if you don't know what made you successful or brought you to this point in time. I don't like harping on it all the time, I really, I really don't like... I try to limit how much I look in the past, but there are certain aspects of it that are super critical in keeping things going. So just from my experience, that's what I would say, and that's just my general observations. Part of the reason for the organization being alive for so long is no doubt because of the value that people saw in terms of giving them a bigger voice in society and representing them. But quite frankly, a big part of it was, it was an important part of their social fabric, too. Like I said, you meet people, you're working with them, and you have fun with them, and you get to know them, but that's just not how society is today, like, with younger people. And part of that is because all of the opportunities that I have, like, because there's not segregation and things like that, I have so many other things I could do and spend my time on. Now, that wasn't the case in '60s, maybe '70s and before that. So it is hard to retain people and it's hard to keep things going because people, they may dabble here and then they quite understandably may want to like go help out another organization or do something else, and that's human nature. So that's why I want to put the emphasis on, in my experience, having those people around like Bill and Elaine that kind of kept that going. I give them a lot of respect, because quite frankly, I couldn't do it. I burned myself out multiple times.