<Begin Segment 3>

AF: When, when exactly did you go to Seattle?

AM: I didn't come to Seattle.. gee, it took me twenty years between my undergraduate, finishing my undergraduate and getting to Seattle finally. So I got a bachelor's degree from the University of Colorado in Asian Studies, and mostly that was because there were, there was no such thing as Asian American Studies at the time. And I was really looking for that, I was looking for roots and looking for a sense of meaning and purpose. So I studied Asian American Studies, then I went to Thailand with the Peace Corps for two years. Then I went to Berkeley for one year and studied Japanese Studies. I got a scholarship, that's why I was there. I just followed the money. [Laughs] [Inaudible] And I was in Berkeley in 1968 during the Third World Liberation Front and People's Park, and, of course, a lot of anti-Vietnam demonstrations. But it was very chaotic. And I came out of Colorado, this tiny little town, and then I went to Thailand, this tiny village. And then I went to Berkeley, it was sort of like, talk about culture shock, my god. So I chickened out, and I left and I went to Germany, I went to Berlin for four years. And I worked there and I studied there and, again, follow the money. [Laughs] And then I followed the money again and I went to Oregon State University and finally completed a master's degree in education. And then I went to Yakima Valley College and finally from Yakima, I was able to come to Seattle.

AF: Oh wow.

AM: But as a kid, I used to visit Seattle a lot. I have a lot of cousins, my father's side of the family. So every other year, we would come to Seattle for the summer, or in the other years, we'd go to California. So...

AF: Got it. Makes sense. And then can you talk a little bit about what sparked your interest in becoming involved with the Japanese American community, and like, did you have any specific mentors that helped usher you into that work?

AM: So growing up in a small enclave where everybody knew your business, I was so anxious to get away. So when I finished my bachelor's degree, I left the country literally. My parents also had a restaurant that they expected us to work in no matter what. I could have a PhD in physics and they would have expected me to work on the weekends in the restaurant. So I left and part of that was leaving Japanese America. It wasn't that I was rejecting it, it's just that I wanted to find something beyond that and more than that. So that's why I went to Thailand and that's why I went to Berkeley, that's why I went to Berlin. But the Asian American movement was happening when I was in Germany and I felt like I was really missing it. And those were all the things I had sort of been looking for. So I followed it from Germany, I was watching what was happening and American Ethnic Studies being established. So when I came back, one of the first things I really wanted to do was to hook up with the community. And luckily, Tomio Moriguchi is my cousin, we're like second cousins.

AF: Oh okay.

AM: Yeah, he was the national treasurer of JACL at the time. So I went to my first National Convention in Portland in maybe 1973. And he was running for treasurer again and there were all these politics and things like that. And then, after one year in Yakima at the college there, I transferred to Highline Community College. And then he really mentored me, he really wanted me to be on the board, and he introduced me to many people. So he's the one that really got me involved. He was involved in the community, and my dad was very active in the Japanese community in Denver. So I had a lot of role models.

AF: Great, thank you for that.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2020 Seattle Chapter JACL. All Rights Reserved.