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EK: I was really excited when Bill actually said that you're a part of the Sansei generation just because I was in a class about Japanese American history and we learned a lot about Sanseis and the impact that they had. Specifically, I remember reading about -- I'm not sure if you know -- like Gidra and Women's Liberation Movement, and everything, and just the Japanese American, Asian American women behind all of that. And so, if you don't mind speaking more to the experiences of being a member of the JACL as a Sansei generation, and anything that you wanted to share about it that was notable, and also something that you want to share about just how this chapter and this community was able to take initiative on having the Sansei generation lead forward. So if you could speak to that?

KB: Sure. Well, first, I would say organizationally in 1982 was a time of robust and diverse programs. There were twenty-seven established committees that included a broad range of civil rights and social justice related advocacy and community programs. And, of course, in 1982, redress was a major project with a substantial momentum coming off of the September 1981 Commission on Wartime Internment and Relocation of Civilian's hearings before -- in Seattle. I recall that our board meeting agendas were packed with informational items, discussion items, and decision making. Attendance and participation were high. And, as I mentioned, we had this incredible newsletter. There was a high level of knowledge that people brought to the meetings.

When I think about my experience as a Sansei that are generational in nature, I'll just kind of mentioned some things that come to mind. I was a teenager, my early teens, absorbing the information related to the '60s Civil Rights Movement. And, in those days, probably I was absorbing a lot of it through the Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, and other print media, but there were certainly black and white -- compelling black and white images coming out of the South at that time. I recall standing on the front lawn of my family home in Gardena and looking in the direction of the freeway and seeing the glow from the fires of the Watts Riots, or rebellion. I recall the rise of Black Power while I was in high school and I particularly recall in my senior year of high school, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, Jr. And I think those assassinations really were a, sort of, I think, a pivot point for certainly a lot of people of my generation. I recall watching the protests at the Democratic National Convention in 1968 and before I entered college. And once I was in college, coming to understand Yellow Power, and for those of us of that era, there was a lot to think about who we were and our identity. And like many people, protested the Vietnam War. So these are just some of the influences, I think, shared by others and in my generation, and they were formative.

At the time I moved to Seattle -- and this was ten years later -- there were other like-minded Sansei attorneys willing to join and putting in the many volunteer hours necessary to achieve our goals. So I can give some examples. When the CWRIC hearing was scheduled for Seattle in 1981, I organized a group of Sansei attorneys with prepared and presented testimony on legal precedents for reparations. Earlier I organized a smaller group to prepare an amicus brief on behalf of the Asian Law Association for submission to the Seattle Federal District Court case in the Seattle Public Schools' desegregation case. Later in 1982, I sought out volunteers to work on Gordon Hirabayashi's coram nobis case. They were just this incredible team and I have a huge respect for their work. And I'd have to say that sometimes they were the same people. So, the person who I really would wish to mention here is Gary Iwamoto. Gary Iwamoto was involved in all three of those activities that I mentioned. And he was always... he would always say yes, and he was always such a valued critical thinker and writer. And he also was someone who worked across community lines. He wasn't just involved in the Nikkei community, he was a real -- he was and I think continues to be just a stalwart in the International District with InterIm and other organizations. And I think there was tremendous value in having him a part of the JACL-related activities. So, I mean, those are like some thoughts.

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