Densho Digital Repository
Seattle JACL Oral History Collection
Title: In Memory of Cherry Kinoshita Interview
Narrator: Dr. Kyle Kinoshita
Interviewers: Brent Seto, Joy Misako St. Germain
Date: March 2, 2022
Densho ID: ddr-sjacl-2-34-5

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BS: Yeah. And then you said that although you did not participate in the redress movement yourself, I imagine you still supported your mother's work. So, could you talk a little bit about the actions of your father and the family, during this movement, to assist Cherry?

KK: Yeah, sure. I think it's interesting. For someone who was so active, you would think that everyone in the family would be, and he was actually not very active. But he was kind of quiet, much more easy going, and I kind of take after him in that way. But he worked incredibly hard at building up the business that he had. And the business was, ended up being pretty successful. It was an auto body shop, and he had a partner for the mechanical part, on Broadway. And it was actually one block south of Seattle Community, Seattle College today. And he just very quietly supported her. I can't imagine that he wasn't very supportive of everything that was done, because of course he was incarcerated. He was drafted out of the camps, and he was part of the Military Intelligence Service, and a veteran. So, I think, a part of that hard work was not only to support me until I got out of college, but actually to support her endeavors. Because I think that a certain point in the '70s, she stopped working from home, at a separate job. She helped, of course, manage the business and kept the books and all that other stuff. But redress became her work. And so, he was always there. Whenever there was a dinner or an award that my mom received as a result of redress he was there.

I remember vividly one kind of incident. For some reason or other in 1988, the convention, JACL convention was in Seattle. And I wasn't active then because it was a whole other story, getting my K-12 education career going as a beginning teacher and you're a teacher that's basically a job and a half, you don't have time for anything else. But for some reason, I stopped in at home, you know, my mom and dad's house on Beacon Hill, I can't remember, to pick up something. And I said, "Where's Mom?" And he was fixing his own dinner. And he just kind of matter of factly said, "Oh, I think she said she had to fly out, go to Washington, D.C." Well, what that was, was that during the convention, it was announced that President Reagan was going to sign the redress bill. And so JACL leaders who were here at this convention in Seattle, got a plane ticket and flew off to Washington, D.C. And that's where she was. She was at the signing ceremony where President Reagan signed the bill. But that kind of told you, my dad kind of followed along. He wasn't kind of into the details at all, he was just kind of doing his job and worked hard. So anyway, yeah.

BS: Yeah, no, that's, that's funny.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2022 Seattle Chapter JACL. All Rights Reserved.