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EK: I, just thinking about what you said, I am just reflecting over the fact that I feel like throughout my life, all the identities that I embrace today, kind of neglected when I was younger. Growing up, I guess, in Seattle, in the most white, Caucasian areas of just like my neighborhood, the school education, I feel like I've been in a... I was in a constant state of neglecting the identities that I am really proud of today, that I embrace today. And I think that this concept of intersectionality and identities and how they are shaped today by just blocking them out and everything has really impacted individuals today. And so, I think that having a conversation about intersectionality is always important. So that's why I created this question. So thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on that. And just moving forward, are there -- are the other people or events -- are there people or events with Seattle JACL that you think we should consider, that we should further talk about, have a conversation about? And if so, who should we contact?

BT: Well, being on this committee and having considered a lot of people already, I think we've covered a lot. I think my -- a regret is that so many of our key people, especially the Nisei folks, it's too late to be... to have a meaningful discussion,  interview with them. And that's very sad to me that we've lost all of them. There are -- we have a number of people that have been influencing me, Elaine Akagi for one, Kip Tokuda is other one, Arlene Oki is another person. I think two people that, or three people that have had a major impact with me, one is Shigeko Uno who was the, our first woman president in 1948. We became really close friends at the 2000 -- gosh, 2004 Honolulu convention. And we stayed close friends until she passed away and I think she was ninety-four. Another one is May Namba. She was one of the school clerks for the Seattle school district, who was fired shortly after Pearl Harbor for her job, because members of the PTA thought these Japanese American school clerks -- and they were like, between the ages of seventeen and nineteen -- would poison the kids in the cafeteria or something. And she became an activist. And yeah, and I mean, oh the other, the other person is Al Sugiyama. He was a former, he was the first Asian American Seattle School District board member, and he was a consummate activist, he was always on target. We didn't always agree, but I learned a lot about strategy from him. And he was always like two steps ahead of me. I would, he would say something and I would say, "Well, I don't think that's gonna be -- that's an issue." He goes, "Well, it's not an issue now, that's not an issue tomorrow, but in two years, think about what might happen." He was really a firebrand.

EK: Well, I hope that, at some point, I'm able to find something on these individuals, they sound great.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2022 Seattle Chapter JACL. All Rights Reserved.