Adachi, Patti and Christina (2/14/2023)

Mary Doi: Thank you. This interview is being recorded by the JASC Legacy Center in order to document the Japanese American Redress movement in Chicago and the Midwest. This interview will differ from a normal conversation in that I won't use verbal cues and responses. Instead, I'll use facial expressions to communicate my interest in what you're saying, it makes for a cleaner transcript. You can decline to answer any question without giving a reason, you can take breaks whenever you need them, and you can end the interview at any 00:01:00point. Got it? Please make sure your phone is silenced.

Patti Adachi: Yeah. Mine is on airplane.

Mary Doi: Okay, great. Thanks. So, all right, well, let's begin.

Christina Adachi (Tina): All right, you know what? I'm going to turn my notifications off.

Patti Adachi: Oh, watch your mic. Oh, where's your phone?

Mary Doi: Is it in your purse?

Patti Adachi: Yes, sorry.

Mary Doi: Okay. Purse.

Patti Adachi: We're paused right now.

Mary Doi: Okay so this interview is really about the Redress movement, but I'm going to ask a little bit of background information before we get into that. And so I'm going to start out with your knowledge about internment. When did you first learn about the Japanese American incarceration and what was your reaction?

Christina Adachi (Tina): Well, I, I think the first time I ever heard about it was actually through a news program hosted by Walter Cronkite, the CBS news anchor. And I realized I hadn't ever heard about it from our parents and in fact, I had heard about camp experiences, especially from my mother. Growing up, she would often recount things that happened in camp and I always thought she meant summer camp because that was the only kind of camp I was familiar with. 00:02:00And then when I went to college, which would've been in 1966, I wrote a paper for a political science class and I wrote it about the internment. And I remember I was at the Washington University Library and I just went around and I just grabbed every, every book, every photograph, every piece of information that I could about the internment. And I sat down at one of the tables in the library and I surrounded by this mound of books and I started going through them and I was just so shocked, horrified, traumatized. I remember sitting there in the library and just weeping at what I was, what I was reading and just trying to process that this had really happened and that it had happened to my parents and their families.

Patti Adachi: Yeah and our grandparents. Yeah, well, sometimes with a bunch of 00:03:00Nisei friends they'd go, "Oh, remember, remember in camp and the food and the lines of the showers?" And they'd go, "ha ha ha" and they'd laugh.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Yeah.

Patti Adachi: So yeah, that was it. They'd just laugh and remember the bad food and, but it was, it was like like summer camp. They never really sat down and talked to us about it. We didn't really talk about you know, prejudice growing up and...

Christina Adachi (Tina): They were definitely Nisei who had ended up in Chicago, both originally from Los Angeles and had just made the decision as so many others had to just look forward, make the best of where they were and not dwell on the past and-- for any number of reasons, and did in fact create successful and happy life for themselves in Chicago. So now that I think about it, the stories that they told about camp didn't really make any sense 'cause they were 00:04:00clearly not, they weren't kids at a summer camp, they were adults, but I just never, it still never occurred to me that it could be anything other than like a summer camp.

Mary Doi: After you learned more of the facts when you were a student at Wash U, did you go back and talk to your parents about it?

Christina Adachi (Tina): I don't remember. Our, I probably... I might have tried to open up a conversation but neither of my parents was interested really in talking about it and they, if they gave any answers, they were very brief and they just said things like, "Well, you know, that was a long time ago and we don't really want to remember that." And, and so I was probably not encouraged to continue the conversation.

Patti Adachi: Well, let's see. So maybe about 1962, my best friend Loretta, her 00:05:00father who had been in the Korean War and I remember coming home and I was in eighth grade and I said, "So Dad, did you fight in the w-- were you a soldier?" And he said, "Yeah, they asked me if I wanted to fight and I said hell no."

Christina Adachi (Tina): That was the first thing I ever, first time I ever remember my dad expressing any anger over what had happened but we did find out that he had said no.

Patti Adachi: Well, he was in grad school. He was at UC Berkeley in graduate school. Yeah, and he's yanked, yanked out of grad school and his parents owned a, a grocery store in Boyle Heights where he grew up, you know, bank accounts are frozen, everything's lost. I mean they'd lose land, businesses.

Christina Adachi (Tina): When I think about how much they had accomplished in Los Angeles because you know, he was born in Los Angeles, Boyle Heights and of course, both his parents were immigrants and he had managed to graduate from 00:06:00UCLA and then, get into grad school at UC Berkeley.

Patti Adachi: Yeah, yeah.

Christina Adachi (Tina): And our mom was younger and she was in junior college, but she was a college student. And so then, the internment completely upended their lives and neither one of them ended up being able to go back to school and complete their education.

Mary Doi: Right, I often wonder if that's why education was so important that my mom, my mom stressed it for us.

Patti Adachi: Oh yes.

Mary Doi: You know, get as much as you can get, I'll figure out how to pay for it.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Oh, yeah. We were definitely one of those families where we never talked about are you going to college. It was always, where are you going to college. There was never any question the expectation was we would go to college.

Mary Doi: That sounds very familiar. Well now, I'm going to jump into the JACL because this is really what we're most interested in and I'm really interested in when did you join the JACL, and I guess I'll go with Tina first. Why did you 00:07:00join it, are you still a member, were your parents members? Did you know anybody in the JACL before you joined? So, can you tell me a little bit about your history with the organization?

Christina Adachi (Tina): It was really the Redress movement. When I heard or read about the commission and the effort for Redress and the role that JACL was playing, that they kind of came onto my radar. Because we lived in Hyde Park, so our life was mostly there. We weren't really part of, we didn't belong to any of the temples, we didn't really have a lot of contact with the Japanese American community other than the Enterprisers Club, that investment club. Once a year there would be a golf tournament and we would go to the dinner and the Christmas party was always at our house, but we, our roots really were in Hyde Park. So JACL, I think my parents might have been members, I think they were members of the JACL Credit Union, but I really didn't pay that much attention to the organization. I sort of didn't think it was for someone my age or someone like 00:08:00me but then when I found out about the Redress and the JACL's role. That's when I really started paying attention and that's when I first contacted them and I started going to meetings and I ended up joining the board and I ended up becoming the president of the Chicago chapter. But it was absolutely the Redress which got me involved in JACL.

Mary Doi: Do you remember how you learned about the Redress movement?

Christina Adachi (Tina): I don't know whether it was a story that I saw in the newspaper or something on the news. I don't remember any individual telling me about it because I don't remember knowing anyone in the JACL.

Mary Doi: Right, I was mentioning to Ty how when you're a Southsider, we were really in our own little bubble--

Patti Adachi: Mm-hmm, yeah.

Mary Doi: --and coming North was almost like going to a foreign country for us.

Christina Adachi (Tina): We were politically active because we were Hyde Parkers. So I was like the Vice President of Young Democrats for Johnson in 00:09:001962. We were involved in civil rights, I actually saw Martin Luther King speak in person. So we were, we were political, but that didn't include JACL or, or Asian American activism, which kind of didn't really exist here in Chicago up until a certain time.

Mary Doi: And how about for you, Patti?

Patti Adachi: Oh, well, so I, I lived in Japan for two years teaching English in Tokyo. And then when I came back in 1980, Tina, I think it was like Fall of '80, she took me to an annual meeting, the JACL annual meeting in 1980. So it was Fall, it's usually in Fall. And then I, maybe there was another event, I can't remember. But in any case, not long after that, I mean I still didn't really know anyone in JACL. I was getting a ride from a meeting... Oh I, then I moved 00:10:00to the North side in the late Fall of 1980, I moved to the North side because I couldn't find anything affordable in Hyde Park and I got to know someone, Glenn Ikeda, who helped me find an apartment. But from some JACL meeting, I was still pretty new. John Tani was the president then and he was driving me home and he was driving Chiye home and Chiye said to John, "John, I don't think I can do the newsletter this month. I'm so busy." and I said, "I'll, I'll do it," and they said "All right", so then I became the editor! And I think you know because they knew Tina, they figured, well you know, I mean maybe they would've even if they hadn't known me, 'cause it's a volunteer organization. You know, it's unpaid, you're just doing it because you want to. And so they said all right and then I, so I edited the newsletter, I was looking, from 1981 until 1995. Then I said, "I think I, does someone else want to edit? I think I'm sort of run out of energy." 00:11:00Yeah, so that's how I, and then I had to join the-- because they said, "Well, you should join the board, because now you're the editor". "Okay." And then eventually, it was actually I became president. They said, "Well, you know, everyone else on the board has already been president. You know you have your year turn. It's your turn." And so it was like, "It's your turn." I said "Oookay." And it was 1988, so it was a big year, right? So I became president. Luckily, I didn't have to give a speech at the, the big, the big inaugural, which I would have because it was such a huge year because the Civil Rights Act had passed. Somebody from national, somebody much, very well known came, you know came and gave the speech. I was actually practicing my speech and saying, "I can do it, I can do it". And then, this... I said, "I don't have to speak in public. This is great." So that's, so yeah, that's how I became involved and I 00:12:00loved being the editor. I met so many people. You know, it was that whole era of the Redress, working on getting witnesses.

Mary Doi: So you mentioned Chiye. Are there other people who come to mind that you got to work with?

Patti Adachi: Oh, Tsune, I got to work with Noriko Takada, Shig Wakamatsu, he was always in the office and I was always there typing on, you know we had those IBM Selectric typewriter, so I'm typing up the copy and Shig was always in there. And sometimes, he'd take me out to dinner and it was kind of fun. It was like, he was kind of like a surrogate father and we'd talk politics and I was kind of like he thought of me as a daughter and he was, he was wonderful. I loved Shig. Smoky Sakurada became, was always you know, there.

Mary Doi: You also mentioned, I think when we were talking, Alice Esaki. Yeah.

Patti Adachi: Alice Esaki, yes. 'Cause she, so she was always there every afternoon after working at Senn High School and that's how I got a job then. I 00:13:00got my next job through Alice writing curriculum for refugee high school kids at Senn.

Christina Adachi (Tina): And there was also this new group of Sansei, like us like John Tani, Dennis Honda, others who were beginning to come into the organization. And then it was really a combination of Nisei and Sansei.

Patti Adachi: Yeah, a lot of Sansei on the board. Maybe even more than--

Christina Adachi (Tina): Yeah, it was really a transitional period.

Mary Doi: Right I guess what both Ron and Bill have said was that the board was very amenable to having Sansei not only join the board but be leaders on the board. So kind of echoing what you said, Tina-- or Patti about taking your turn to be the president--

Patti Adachi: Yes, it was your turn. Right.

Mary Doi: ...Which is, yeah. Which is a really nice image that they're not being gatekeepers. So that's good. So you think you, Tina, you think you might've 00:14:00heard about Redress on some news program--

Christina Adachi (Tina): Right, or a newspaper article. Something about, something about the Redress effort and maybe about the commission, creation of the commission. And that's, that just really sparked my interest. And, because when I first heard about the internment you know, and I had that moment in the library where I was weeping, what could I do about it? There wasn't anything I could do about it. So then when this happened, it was finally an opportunity to act, to do something and of course, to do something for our parents.

Mary Doi: That's interesting. Do you think your parents knew about the Redress movement?

Christina Adachi (Tina): I think they were aware of it because mom read the paper faithfully every single day and they both watched the evening news so--

Patti Adachi: Oh and they got, well grandma always got the Rafu Shimpo. That was 00:15:00a big paper right, from Los Angeles.

Mary Doi: Right.

Patti Adachi: And there was the English section, so yeah, they must have covered a lot.

Christina Adachi (Tina): I'm not sure they were members of JACL.

Patti Adachi: No.

Christina Adachi (Tina): As I said, they might've been members of the credit union and they might've known some people in JACL, but especially as you said, living in Hyde Park, they were not active with the JACL. So, I think they might've found out about it the same way we did and then, when we got involved, that certainly increased their interest and their involvement. Like my mother came to the hearings, which kind of surprised me.

Mary Doi: How about your brothers, were they at all interested?

Christina Adachi (Tina): No. They're both considerably younger, enough years younger and pretty much completely apolitical.

Patti Adachi: At the time, right.

Christina Adachi (Tina): They were just interested in sports. Yeah, and in fact, they had more of a connection in a way to the Japanese community on the North side because they played in the basketball league and they were in the Boy Scout troops--

Patti Adachi: The BTC.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Right, right, even though we didn't belong to the temple but--

Patti Adachi: No, I think mom and dad were members of the Temple, BTC.

Christina Adachi (Tina): You do?

Patti Adachi: Yeah, they used to get the newsletter.

Christina Adachi (Tina): But they were members of the church also.

Patti Adachi: Well, yeah, that was just social reasons and then, BTC was their connection.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Okay, okay yeah. Becasuse we went to, we went to a Protestant church in Hyde Park.

Patti Adachi: Yeah, Hyde Park Baptist Church.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Yeah.

Mary Doi: Uh-huh, okay. I remember that Boy Scout troop, I remember that Tom Teraji would bring my brother up to the, for the meetings, you know? So I think our brothers, my brothers and your brothers were probably in that all together as the Hyde Parkers going up to the North side.

Patti Adachi: Yeah, right, yeah.

Mary Doi: That's really interesting though to hear that they, that your parents may have been members of the credit union, but they may have learned about Redress independently of you, but also, from you, they are learning more about it. You've touched about, on this a little bit before, Tina, that you were involved in other social justice issues before you got involved with the JACL 00:17:00Redress movement. And you mentioned being there with, to hear Martin Luther King. Can you tell me about other kinds of social justice activities that you were involved in?

Christina Adachi (Tina): Well, just growing up in Hyde Park, we were acti-- we were aware of and supporters of anti-war and Civil Rights and the Women's movement. And then, in the 70s, I moved to Pittsburgh with my then husband, also, originally a Hyde Parker. And we were members of the Socialist Workers Party and I ran for U.S. Senate. I ran as the Social Workers party candidate for U.S. Senate, even though I wasn't old enough to be a senator in, I think, it was either 1972 or 1974. So I was, and I just went on lots of, there's actually a, 00:18:00for some reason, there's a front page picture in the New York Times, which a friend of mine sent to me a few years ago and it was me speaking at an abortion rights rally in Pittsburgh during my Pittsburgh years. I have no idea who took the picture, how it ended up on the front page of the New York Times, but it was some story about abortion rights. And so I was sort of always politically active, but it was only later with my joining JACL and becoming part of the Redress movement that I became active in, I would say, Asian American activism. I remember going to Vincent Chin demonstrations. And then, I was one of the founders of...

Patti Adachi: Well, there was Mina-sama no--

Christina Adachi (Tina): Right, Angel Island, Asian American Theater Company and with Linda Yu, I was one of the founders of the Chicago chapter of the Asian 00:19:00American Journalist Association. So then my activism also really did expand into Asian community and their issues and organizations.

Mary Doi: Great. Tina do you think or-- Patti, do you think you had any previous involvement in social issues before joining the JACL?

Patti Adachi: Oh, in Madison. Anti-war demonstrations, Madison was a hotbed of anti-war activism. Yes, so there were a lot of demonstrations and student strikes. Yeah, it was, that was what I participated in.

Mary Doi: So I think in the late 1970s, JACL and especially, Chicago and Bill Curtis got involved in getting a pardon for Iva Toguri. Do you remember that?

Patti Adachi: Mm-hmm, yes.

Mary Doi: I think she was pardoned in 1977. Were you involved with that at all, 00:20:00do you know?

Patti Adachi: No, we weren't involved.

Christina Adachi (Tina): I remember, I remember it, but I don't remember having any active role in that.

Mary Doi: Okay. Well, I think you've told me about some of the Niseis and the Sanseis involved. I know that Patti had also mentioned Janice Honda, Joy Yamasaki, Jim Fujimoto, and then, the other people that both of you had mentioned. And you remember, Patti, somebody you said, a Sansei guy who helped with the strategy development for the Redress movement. Can you tell me what you remember and who you kind of, what you remember about him?

Patti Adachi: Yes, yes, I can't remember his name, but I remember that he said we've got to make this as American as apple pie. It's not about a certain group, like the Japanese Americans being discriminated, it is about a violation of constitutional rights. Yeah, and then that's, you know you, you focus on that 00:21:00and you get all kinds of, the ACLU and lots of groups, Jewish groups getting inv-- you know getting support from them about a violation of your rights as a citizen.

Mary Doi: I, I love that phrase. "Make it as American as apple pie".

Patti Adachi: Make it as American as apple pie, to get it passed through Congress, yeah. And I know maybe--

Mary Doi: Right, right.

Katherine Nagasawa: Do you think that was... Oh sorry, I was wondering, was that Mike Ushijima?

Patti Adachi: No, I don't think it was Mike Ushijima. I'm, I'd have to see. I have an image of this guy, at one of the celeb-- maybe it was the inaugural that year and we're dancing. And Chiye asked him. He was, I mean he was a brilliant strategist, but I remember she asked him to, say, "Hey, why don't want to dance with me?" And he was terrible. And, but yeah, and I don't know who he was. So I, if maybe if I saw a picture, I'd remember. I can't remember his name, somebody would remember. Chiye would remember, maybe Bill will remember. Yeah but that.

Mary Doi: So was that a, a catchphrase that really resonated in the chapter?

Patti Adachi: Well, I just remember, I just, I remember you know, hearing that and being told that that is how we're focusing now. We're going to shape it, that's the way, the narrative, it's, it's a constitutional rights issue.

Mary Doi: Was that going to be a narrative not just in Chicago but for the national?

Patti Adachi: Oh national, yeah, yeah.

Mary Doi: Okay, great.

Patti Adachi: So he was not local. He wasn't from Chicago, I'm pretty sure. I don't remember him at all.

Mary Doi: Oh, oh okay.

Christina Adachi (Tina): But hearing that and then, going on the Reckoning website, I had kind of forgotten about the divisions within the Redress movement. And so then I was reminded of NCJAR is that-- and William Hohri and the other group. That's not surprising or uncommon. Political movements always have divisions and disagreements and support different strategies but it seems like the JACL strategy was the winning strategy and was the most informed as far 00:23:00as real politics, here's what you have to do, here's, this situation. Most people have never even heard of the internment and there were still a lot of internment deniers. I mean I've had many people in my life say to me, "That never happened. That could never happen here." And so you know you're, that really, we were starting from ground zero in a lot of ways, including among members of Congress to get this bill passed and reparations and the apology and all of that. I think that that was a, a realistic and an accurate reading of the political landscape.

Mary Doi: Right, one of the ways I think about it is that the JACL's efforts was really the legislative effort that William Hohri's NCJAR National Coalition for Japanese American Redress is the judicial route.

Patti Adachi: It was about suing the government.

Mary Doi: Yes. Class action lawsuit where they had I think 19 plaintiffs and 00:24:00they had a list of 20 infringements of civil rights. So they're different approaches with the same goal is, is how I look at it and then, NCRR was the National Coalition for Redress and Reparations, which was a really a grassroots organization mainly based in L.A. I was in San Francisco during Redress and so I remember that in San Francisco, but I was told by my daughter, "It's mainly in L.A. thing," and I've talked to the leaders and they, they said, "No, we didn't have a branch in Chicago," so, you know, we got skipped over. But we did have definitely a JACL movement here and an NCJAR movement here. So I think that's pretty remarkable that two of these big, big movements are based in Chicago and we were lucky to have Bill. We were so lucky to have a Midwest regional rep or district rep on staff. So how would you say the roles that Niseis and Sanseis 00:25:00took differ or were they pretty much similar? If you had to make a broad statement about Niseis did this and Sanseis did that, what would you say?

Patti Adachi: Focusing on Redress?

Mary Doi: Yeah.

Patti Adachi: I don't know how different the approaches were. You had some pretty radical Niseis, well, like William Hohri and you had like the No-No boys who also may not... You know, they probably didn't have like JACL. Right? JACL joined, were often seen as collaborators, right? They tried, they were cooperating with the government, I mean you know they have their own defense, which is valid but I think some people like the No-No boys took a whole different approach.

Mary Doi: Right, right.

Christina Adachi (Tina): But here in Chicago, I feel like there was a really a 00:26:00very friendly and, and sort of mutually appreciative relationship between Nisei and Sansei who joined together for this effort and who ended up, for example, all becoming like Patti and me, members of JACL and members of the board. We were coming from different perspectives because the Nisei obviously had almost all been through the experience themselves, whereas, we hadn't but I feel there was a real sense of this is something that we can do for our parents and our grandparents. This is something we can do for our families. Finally, there's something we can do. And many of us also did have a lot of political activism experience as, as we've gone over, which I don't think probably the majority of Nisei, many of them obviously became part of this because of their personal 00:27:00experiences but, but a lot of the Sansei were familiar with political organizing and activism because of the age that we were and the times in which we came to adulthood.

Mary Doi: You know, I read your Mom's obituary and I love the fact that she was an election judge in the fifth ward. I thought, "Yay, yay Mrs. Adachi." So it seems like, you know in her own way, she was politically active in the way that a Nisei woman probably felt comfortable doing but also very committed doing.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Well, we also thinking about it, my parents kind of made a statement by deciding to stay in Hyde Park because so many, I remember so many other Nisei families that we knew growing up, growing up had either moved North, moved to the suburbs or moved back to the West Coast. And my parents and I never really discussed this with them, I think they, they liked Hyde Park and 00:28:00they felt comfortable there, although they were not part of the University of Chicago and most of my friends, their parents were University of Chicago faculty. But they did choose and they didn't really have to... We didn't have any family here other than our immediate family other than the family who lived together in our house, our two grandmothers, our grandfather, our parents and us. We didn't have any other family. All the family would have been back on the West Coast but they chose to stay in Chicago and in Hyde Park, which is well known as a liberal, very politically active community neighborhood, unique part of Chicago, they, they did choose to stay there and that's where they stayed pretty much all their lives.

Mary Doi: Yeah, it was a special place. I'll, I'll agree.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Mm-hmm, yeah.

Mary Doi: So you talked, Patti, you've talked about being the editor of the newsletter for forever and you've both talked about being president, taking your 00:29:00turn being the president. What other kinds of things would you say that you, what other kinds of roles did you play in the Chicago JACL Redress effort? Are there specific things you could name?

Patti Adachi: No, I just think I helped, well, exhibits with you know boards that were there during for the... Well, whatever big events, we had annual meetings. I can't remember you know a lot of it I just can't remember. But I know I was at all of these, a lot of meetings and I, and I just did the newsletter, so I did a lot of articles about Redress and there was special Redress issues and, and I helped with exhibits, with photos. But that's really all I remember.

Mary Doi: You know, I've looked at the list of people who testified and unfortunately, I didn't bring it with me but I saw Miyo Hayashi's name on that as one of the people who testified and you know, a Hyde Parker through and 00:30:00through. Were there any other Hyde Parkers that you can remember who testified? And, and unfortunately, I don't have the list to show you.

Patti Adachi: Well, wait, was Mike Yasutake Northside or was he Hyde Park?

Mary Doi: Well, when I knew him, he lived in Evanston. But I knew him at the end of his life, so I don't know if he was ever in Hyde Park, okay but nobody else. And was there any buzz about Redress in Hyde Park, do you know?

Christina Adachi (Tina): I guess by then, I was also living on the North Side. Yeah, we were both living on the North Side so, and I don't recall anyone, any other Hyde Parkers that I could identify as being active in Redress.

Mary Doi: Okay. Well, that's good. And that's exactly what you said, that you didn't think of any other, couldn't think of any other Hyde Parkers involved in Redress or even very much involved in the JACL. Now I want to move on to the 00:31:00hearings themselves. So these are the hearings that took place in September 1981 at the Northeastern Illinois University. So first of all, I'd like to know, Tina, were you somebody who attended the hearings?

Christina Adachi (Tina): Yes.

Mary Doi: Can you paint the picture for me what it's like to be in that room?

Christina Adachi (Tina): For me, I think my, the, what, what made the strongest impression was the individuals who chose to talk about their experiences and I, it seemed clear that they were really opening up for the first time. And it was so, it was painful, it was traumatic, but it was also so cathartic and just seemed like just an incredible release of emotions, pain, sorrow, shame that 00:32:00they were hesitant to feel and let loose and express previously for any number of reasons. And the hearings really gave them the opportunity to do that and it was just so, it just made it an incredible impression on me that it was just so raw, it really was, to, to see these people who were just not, didn't hold positions in any organizations, weren't representing anyone in particular, just sharing for the first time their individual personal most painful experiences. And it was so important that they did that but it also felt like the benefit was also really for them to be able to finally do that.

Mary Doi: So, I've often wondered, this event has, has such gravitas, this is a 00:33:00commission appointed by the government. And so, I often think that who you testify to is as important as what you say. And if you're ever going to, if you're ever going to bare your soul, you do it when you've got this government commission in front of you, that's listening, these nine sets of ears that are listening. Does that resonate with you?

Christina Adachi (Tina): Well, I did feel the, the weight of it and just the importance, the significance that this was actually happening and at such a high level. And then just coincidentally, Arthur Goldberg was the uncle of one of my best friends, so I had actually, I think, I had met him before. I knew who he 00:34:00was, maybe before this commission but I, I, but certainly, the significance and the importance and the recognition that it meant just to have this commission put together and, and having these hearings, I, I was certainly very aware of that and that was just really meant a lot.

Mary Doi: You've talked a little bit about your reaction, but you also mentioned that you think your mom attended. Do you remember anything about her reactions?

Christina Adachi (Tina): I think that, I was kind of surprised that she came both days and she stayed the whole time because as I've said, she wasn't really politically active but I think it was just...

Patti Adachi: Do you remember her crying?

Christina Adachi (Tina): I don't remember her crying. I don't remember her 00:35:00actually even talking about it. I just remember just the fact that she was there for both days, it obviously was important to her and it really meant something to her and she just sort of took it all in but I don't remember having any particular conversation with her after that.

Patti Adachi: Yeah, right, yeah, it was hard to kind of deal with controversial things with my mother. She preferred not to because even years later around the 90s or something I said, so-- I was interviewing her for something... And I said, "Tell me about, you know camp." She goes, "Oh, we had fun." That was it.

Mary Doi: Well, did you talk to Patti about it? Tina, did you talk to Patti about being there? 'Cause I, as I recall, you didn't think you were there?

Patti Adachi: No, I don't think I was there. I'm not sure why I wasn't there. This was early 80s, right?

Christina Adachi (Tina): Yeah.

Patti Adachi: I was still living--

Mary Doi: '81.

Patti Adachi: I was, '81, right. No, I was on the North side. I don't know why I 00:36:00wasn't there. Oh, maybe I'd had Emi. No, no, not yet. I don't know why I wasn't there.

Christina Adachi (Tina): I think we probably had conversations about it because I would've wanted to tell you about it, but I don't remember a particular conversation.

Mary Doi: You know as I've been reading old notes and hearing other interviews, it seems as if there were, Chiye was really key in recruiting and helping to rehearse people to give their testimony. Were either of you involved in that kind of, that part of the Redress movement in Chi-- for Chicago?

Christina Adachi (Tina): No.

Patti Adachi: No. I know Chiye was an accountant, she-- And she also owned a couple buildings and she was like a landlady. But I remember every month, she'd go to the American Friends Service Committee office and do their books for free because she said, "Because they were the ones that helped resettle us," yeah so 00:37:00she always volunteered to do bookkeeping for them.

Mary Doi: You know, there were some of these Nisei women that I so admire, so Chiye is one of them. And I don't know if you knew Kiyo Yoshimura?

Patti Adachi: Yeah.

Mary Doi: She was another one, it's like, "These are just dynamite women. I really liked them."

Christina Adachi (Tina): Our mother was just really totally a glass half full person. She was just always very optimistic, very positive, so her response, "Oh, we had fun," was very much in keeping with her character. And I have to say, I finally for the first time got to take a pilgrimage to Amache just this last summer with my daughter Aurora. And in addition to the, the sadness and you know the horror of standing in this 9x12 room or whatever it was where my mother and her family and then our relatives next door lived and just how completely 00:38:00traumatic and grotesque it must have been, I was also so impressed like at the Amache Museum with all the social activities that they created in camp. There was that bulletin board filled with almost like prom invitations and casino nights and dances and bonfires and potluck dinners. And, and they just completely just sort of decided, well while they were there they were going to absolutely, absolutely make the best of it. The incredible art that they created--

Patti Adachi: Yes, they had vegetable gardens, they grew Japanese vegetables.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Oh, right the agricultural success that they had. So clearly, while it was such a hardship and so horrible, I could understand when my mother said we had fun because you did have this, you got to see your friends every single day. For young people, they were robbed of a lot but they also were all together all the time. And they really, you know they went ice skating, they 00:39:00had sports teams, they had boy scouts and they really did create a sort of alternative social universe.

Mary Doi: That's a great description. Alternative social universe. Do you think your dad also had this more rosy view of being in camp? I mean he mentions that you know he, he was not you know, not a soldier, but--

Patti Adachi: No, I think he was angrier, but he didn't talk about it growing up. You know, we didn't hear about it.

Mary Doi: How are we doing on time?

Ty Yamamoto: We're doing okay.

Mary Doi: Okay.

Christina Adachi (Tina): He was also five or six years older than my mother and it might've been harder for him to adjust than it was for her. And as we said, he was a grad student at the time at UC Berkeley and I think it was really hard for him. I mean don't know what it, how much hard work it, it took for him to, 00:40:00to have acheieved, achieved that, you know to graduate from UCLA, then get accepted as a, and, and be in a grad program at Berkeley and then that all totally ended. Plus then, he had the responsibility in Chicago of he was the primary breadwinner and he had to start from scratch working as a laborer in factories and then, opened a dry cleaners but it was certainly not the professional future that he had imagined.

Patti Adachi: Right he was either, he was either going to become a doctor or he was going to major in like entomology, you know insects right? I remember him saying that and was like "Eww". He said, "Well, you know, you're in California, it's agricultural. That's a field." Yeah and so you know, his parents had been, they'd gotten through the depression through the 30s, sent him to college and 00:41:00then they had a grocery store. They were totally self-sufficient, they took, they were supporting themselves and him. And then, then they come to Chicago and he had to support them and his mother-in-law, my you know, my mother's mother.

Mary Doi: Right so his, his life was hugely disrupted.

Christina Adachi (Tina): It was, yeah. I don't know whether we could in general say it was harder for men than for women but my mother was also just very social and I could just see in camp, she had friends, she made friends, she had fun. And for my father, not sure that there was that kind of social network. And as, as I said, he was older and then after camp, finding himself in Chicago and starting from scratch and feeling the responsibility of supporting a family, four children plus two, two grandmothers and a grandfather, that all kind of rested on his shoulders.

Patti Adachi: Yeah, yeah.

Mary Doi: Wow. Wow. That's, that's amazing. We've talked a little bit about the 00:42:00hearings. I'm really curious about that conference that happened before the hearings that Saturday, Monday conference. And Tina, I know you were a speaker. Can you talk to me about that, about how you got chosen, maybe what you said, what it was like to be a speaker at this conference, you know, how many people came? Who sponsored it? I can't figure that out.

Christina Adachi (Tina): I don't know the answer to that question.

Mary Doi: Okay.

Christina Adachi (Tina): I don't know whether it was just an offshoot from the JACL's preparation for the hearings or not. So yeah, I don't know who organized that. But I assume because I was introduced and I referred to myself as a member of the media and at the time, there were very few Asian American journalists. It was years later that we founded the Chicago chapter of the Asian American Journalist's Association. But back then, it was Linda Yu and a writer for the Tribune and not too many others, Gene Honda and I think I was one of the few 00:43:00Japanese, of Japanese ancestry. So I would be, of the media members, I would be a logical choice. And I don't remember whether, I don't think at that time, I was an officer in JACL, I don't think I was representing JACL. So, who chose me? I don't know. And as I said, I think it was because I had some visibility as a, as a journalist and I was very comfortable giving a speech. I was very comfortable with public speaking because I had a radio show on WLS, I hosted a number of cable shows, I was a columnist for a newspaper, so that was not a problem for me. Not that I wasn't a little bit nervous because speaking on a subject that, that was new to me, but I remember I was happy to do it and I was 00:44:00just really, I liked being included and being part of the group.

Mary Doi: I think what's so impressive is not just that you spoke but who else spoke with you. Do you know, I think Min Yasui was on the roster, Roger Daniels was also somebody who spoke and then, the next day retired Justice Goldberg you know.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Right, I probably didn't appreciate at the time the company I was keeping, I just knew that they picked me and I said yes.

Mary Doi: Do you remember if your folks came to, to the conference?

Christina Adachi (Tina): I think mom might've come because she usually, she usually showed up whenever I was doing anything, giving a speech or hosting--

Patti Adachi: Yeah, and she had more time. Dad was still working.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Yeah, yeah so I don't think that Dad came but I have a feeling that mom might've been there.

Mary Doi: Okay. And Patti, you thought that you probably didn't go, is that right?

Patti Adachi: I don't think I was there. I don't remember being there.

Mary Doi: Was it anything you would've talked to Tina about?

Patti Adachi: Yeah, I mean that footage, that's the first time I feel like I saw that, when you were speaking on that panel. But that's odd 'cause I was editing the newsletter.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Why weren't you there?

Patti Adachi: I don't know. (laughs) What was I doing?

Mary Doi: Well it's interesting how, you know I, I wouldn't expect to have really sharp recall either. You're going back like 40 years--

Christina Adachi (Tina): Over 40 years.

Mary Doi: How do I remember, how do I remember? We talked a little bit about NCJAR and NCRR. Did you support both of those efforts as well as the JACL or do you feel like you didn't really know enough about them?

Christina Adachi (Tina): I certainly was not an active supporter of either one of them. My, my efforts were really pretty much confined to JACL.

Patti Adachi: But in general, any effort, wanting some kind of redress, some 00:46:00kind of reparations and acknowledgement and an apology, yeah we would've supported. Yeah, I don't--

Mary Doi: But maybe not taken part in?

Patti Adachi: No, 'cause I, we were just mainly involved in JACL. And I do remember reading Paul Igasaki and one of his president's messages in the newsletter and he said you know, there are these different efforts but NCJAR's, you know, there's the statute of limitations. I just don't think they'd succeed. Yeah, it's a good, you know, we support the whole goal and the reason, you know the reason behind them but I don't think they would be successful.

Mary Doi: I'm going to have to look at those old newsletters which are in the really moldy basement.

Patti Adachi: Oh, yeah. Sometime, I want to see too.

Katherine Nagasawa: I love the newsletters. I have a couple of photocopies, Patti, and I, I love the Japanese designs included. There's like all these like different swirls and waves and I don't know where you got them from.

Patti Adachi: Oh, you know, I, I did those myself but I got the idea from the New Yorker magazine, 'cause they always had pen and ink drawings filling little 00:47:00spaces. So I did those with things I had around from, probably from Tokyo.

Katherine Nagasawa: Oh my gosh, they're amazing. They're like, I'll show you some of them. I can photocopy some and send them to you but there's one with a ship and there's water and the ship has like a, kind of like a Japanese flag on it and some really--

Patti Adachi: I can't remember that. Maybe that, I don't know if that's mine. It sounds more like--

Mary Doi: Just say thank you. (laughs)

Patti Adachi: Yeah, but no, yeah, I did pen drawings and I got the idea from the New Yorker magazine. So I, yeah, I drew those and I'd stick them in and I started adding poems. I don't know if everybody thought that... You know I had poems in there like Dwight Okita's and Janice Mirikitani's and Lawson Inada, and I don't-- You know sometimes, the newsletters were bigger and they cost more to print and I'm not, nobody-- Japanese, they don't say to your face, "Why, what are you doing?" You know they might say it behind your back. And Bill Yoshino 00:48:00would say, "Yeah, you know people they monku behind your back but they're not going to tell you". Like, "This is not the place to have these poems or these little drawings. They're nice, but no." Nobody said that to me.

Christina Adachi (Tina): But they couldn't fire her because she was a volunteer.

Patti Adachi: No they wouldn't. Well, yeah, they weren't going to fire me.

Christina Adachi (Tina): But she was a great editor I mean, because she's always been an amazing artist, so she created all this artwork and she's also an excellent writer, so they were very lucky to have you being willing to edit that newspaper for as many years as you did.

Patti Adachi: Yes. Well, it was so rewarding. I got to know so many Nisei and so many Sansei I would never have known.

Christina Adachi (Tina): But you know our involvement was not completely altruistic. We really had a lot of fun and it was just so gratifying to meet all these people and to get to work with them and spend time with them, Nisei and Sansei and we ended up going to some of the JACL national conventions, L.A. and Seattle and San Francisco. We went to some of the Midwest regional conventions. I remember getting in a car and driving to Iowa or Ohio or Wisconsin but it was 00:49:00really a great social experience, you know, and then there was this sense of our all being together in this joint effort. But, remember when we had a, when we had a JACL convention in Chicago and people came from around the country and we went to, we spent a night at the Limelight, we took all the young people dancing at the Limelight and so... It was, it was really, it really was a lot of--

Patti Adachi: Oh yeah it was very rewarding, personally rewarding.

Christina Adachi (Tina): It was, it really was. And we had experiences that we would otherwise never, never have had.

Mary Doi: Yeah, yeah. I'm going to--

Ty Yamamoto: Sorry, I'm going to pause really quick. Just one moment.

Mary Doi: Okay, so we're at the hour?

Ty Yamamoto: Almost at the hour.

Mary Doi: Okay. I was just going to jump in.

Ty Yamamoto: Can we do 12 minutes left, is that possible? That's about how much audio I have left.

Mary Doi: Oh, and can you go to the phone or not?

Ty Yamamoto: I c-- Let's see. If you give me five minutes, I can get us more time. Is that possible?

Mary Doi: Oh, I'm going to ask two questions and hopefully, we can get through them.

Ty Yamamoto: Okay. Okay, if you can give me five minutes, I can swap this out and get us some more time on the--

Mary Doi: Well, let's just see how far we get.

Ty Yamamoto: Okay, give me one moment. Yeah, we have 12 minutes on the recorder. And it is--

Mary Doi: Okay. So tell me when it's six minutes. One of the foci of these oral histories is to really focus on the Midwest efforts for Redress and contrast that with the rest of the country. Is there anything that comes to mind to you that makes the Midwest Region's efforts different from any other region's efforts?

Patti Adachi: I don't know what, anything about you know like the West Coast or like New York.

Christina Adachi (Tina): The only thing I can remember is just the sheer size of the JA community in Chicago. You know the whole history of that, I forget what the number is, thousands of people, who came directly out of the camps to Chicago for various reasons, employment and, and all of that. So I think that we did have a sense that Chicago was a major player in this effort and, and we were, we were a part of that and that was important because we were such a large population center and really did have to take a leading role.

Mary Doi: Okay. Well, I'm going to jump to questions, the last question, which I'm really interested in. I'm really interested, so this is called the Redress 00:51:00and Reparations Movement, which to me implies that there's some kind of repair that happens. Do you think repair happened out of this movement and what does repair look like for the Japanese American community? What's left to do?

Patti Adachi: I think for my parents yeah there was, it, it was, it did repair a lot. It helped a lot for the acknowledgement and you know, the money was kind of token, but not really. I mean it was... Yeah, the money did mean, make a difference. I remember the whole debate, you know, it's not about money, but they said, "No, you have to, you can't just get an apology. That's cheap. It has to cost something, because that's how Americans, you know that's Americans... it's got to cost them actual dollars, so you've got to have a substantial amount." But there was a woman, a Nisei woman who was a teacher's aid at Senn High School and she told me some of the land her parents owned before they lost 00:52:00it, it was part of Knotts Berry Farm. That's like, I don't know, millions of dollars. It's, it's huge. It's very valuable land. So you know you lose land like that, prime land and... But it did, I think it, it made them feel good that there was the apology and some acknowledgement and some effort.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Yeah, I think it was hugely significant both on an individual basis for people to be able to relive and finally, in, in many instances confront what the experience was and just kind of work through it and just release those emotions for the first time. And then I think for the JA community, it was just so important that this become part of history, that the commission was created, the bill was passed, the apology, the, the checks, I, I 00:53:00mean I just think we can't underestimate what a difference that has made. That's part of American history and so, it was really important that, that those steps were taken. I think there's still a lot to do, not necessarily confined to the Japanese community, but as we know in recent years, there's been so many instances of anti-Asian hate and violence and just clearly as a country we have such a long way to go as far as confronting the questions of race and identity and immigrants and all of that, so there's a long path ahead of us. But I, I certainly feel that what happened with the Redress movement was just, just of huge importance and significance and I'm just so grateful that there were people 00:54:00to start this effort and see it all the way through and complete it and I think we're all the benefits of that. We're, we've all received the benefits of that.

Mary Doi: I think especially that there were still some Isseis alive to get the checks as well as our Nisei parents.

Patti Adachi: Yeah.

Mary Doi: Let's see.

Christina Adachi (Tina): So grandma was still alive to get her check right?

Patti Adachi: Grandma was still alive, but Oji-san and Ba-chan were not.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Two of our grandparents were deceased by that time.

Mary Doi: Kat?

Katherine Nagasawa: Hey.

Mary Doi: Hi.

Katherine Nagasawa: Sorry, I think somehow the call might've dropped.

Mary Doi: Right. We're kind of winding up, we just talked a little bit about how does repair happen, what does it look like, what's left to do.

Katherine Nagasawa: Yeah, I definitely heard all that, it was just a couple seconds ago that it, it dropped.

Mary Doi: Okay. Do you remember what your parents did with that $20,000?

Christina Adachi (Tina): I don't and when I think about it, that was a lot of money and it's certainly a lot of money to them. I remember my dad made $10,000 00:55:00a year, which I thought was like a huge amount of money, but there were three people in our household, my two parents and one of my grandmothers who was still alive, so that would've been $60,000 coming into our household and I don't know whether they put it into a college fund or what did they do with it?

Patti Adachi: I think they might've put some of it into CDs, is that certificate, what, whatever--

Mary Doi: Certificate of deposit.

Patti Adachi: And, and, in case we needed-- I think dad said, you know, "This is for you know, any of the kids in case they need our help." 'Cause I know there were some of those. And I did use some when I had my hips resurfaced in India, part of them, mom said, "Yeah Dad, you know Dad, your, your father said this is for the kids if they need anything."

Christina Adachi (Tina): Because up until then, I don't think that they could have saved much money. 'Cause there, you know there were nine of us living in our house.

Patti Adachi: I don't know what grandma did with hers.

Christina Adachi (Tina): I don't know.

Patti Adachi: She might have put it in the bank.

Katherine Nagasawa: One thing I wanted to ask about Patti is I was looking in a 1981 issue of the JACL-er and you wrote an editorial about the formation of your Japanese American and Asian American identity but you also mentioned that your grandma used to say when the government sends the check, when the money comes from the government, I'm going to buy you anything you want.

Patti Adachi: Right, yes, and-- Yeah.

Katherine Nagasawa: Do you mind, do you mind telling that story? It seems like she passed away right before she would've--

Patti Adachi: That was, she died in 1964, that, my grandmother, my father's mother. But yeah we were very close and, and you know 'cause they had the business and they must've had a house and she would send letters you know, and they, my father would send letters to try to get some compensation from the government. And I think that was what a lot of Issei did. And I think, I think I have a copy of a letter where she said, "Well, we can give you this much." It was just a paltry amount. You know but yeah she would, she'd say, "Yeah, when 00:57:00the money comes, I'm going to get you things," and then, then it did come and we never heard anything. It's not like, "Yay, now we are going to buy--" They were so disappointed. They must've been so disappointed at what the government gave them you know, for their, their store, their home.

Mary Doi: Yeah, pennies on the dollar.

Patti Adachi: Yeah, yeah.

Katherine Nagasawa: Mm-hmm. And then I did also want to just like read this other line that stood out to me, you talked about how you identified as white when you were younger because a lot of your friends were white.

Patti Adachi: Oh yes, yeah.

Katherine Nagasawa: But then, through being involved in Redress, through your trip and time in Japan, you wrote, "I now identify as Asian, as a minority, as third world. I think the Redress campaign has reactivated my anger."

Patti Adachi: Yes, yes.

Katherine Nagasawa: Can you talk about how being involved in the Redress movement sort of shaped your sense of identity?

Patti Adachi: Well, being in Japan was a big part of it. All of a sudden, I 00:58:00realized, I feel so comfortable here. I don't feel like I'm representing my race, you know wherever I, in, in... Even in Hyde Park, you know, I still was almost the only, only Asian sometimes in a group. So I realized how comfortable I felt, I realized how Japanese I was in many ways because we grew up with two grandmothers and a great uncle. You know so they really taught a lot of how we should act. They were the ones who said, you know, "You don't do this in public, you don't shame your family." "People," grandma used to say, my mother's mother, "People will laugh." So yeah, but then, I real-- yeah I became very angry when I read all about you know the, just the whole history of racism against Asians and, and I did, I became very political. I used to not be at all and, yeah and I felt more comfortable with myself because we grew up reading Seventeen Magazine and everyone, you know everyone was white that we saw on TV and the movies and magazines and most of our friends. So yeah, it was huge and then, getting 00:59:00involved with JACL, I could sit at these meetings and just feel really comfortable with people. And you know you just understood each other.

Katherine Nagasawa: Gotcha.

Mary Doi: How about your daughters, do you think, how do they identify?

Patti Adachi: Yeah, what do you, what, well--

Christina Adachi (Tina): Well, Aurora definitely identifies as, as Asian American or Japanese American or Hapa. And I think she would always, is very glad that part of her last name is Japanese because she has a hyphenated last name, Adachi-Winter. So yes, and she's always been really interested in our family and our family history. And I was so glad that she wanted to make the pilgrimage with me to Amache over the summer.

Mary Doi: So was that just a private pilgrimage, just the two of you or were you on a bigger group?

Christina Adachi (Tina): No, it was a, it was an annual pilgrimage, which 01:00:00finally was able to be live after having been virtual for two or three years.

Patti Adachi: 'Cause Minoru Tonai is my mother's first cousin and he's, he's huge in the Japanese American community in like Southern California. He was president of the Japanese American Culture and Community Center. He was part of, he, he's a really well-known person. So yeah, the whole Tonai family, which was my mother's side, and they're yeah, they're very active in the museum.

Christina Adachi (Tina): This is an annual pilgrimage which finally went live and Min Tonai is now like 95 or something like that. So Patti and I kept saying, if we want to see Min again, we cannot just wait many more years. We really need to make an effort and so then, we met in Amache and many of our relatives from Southern California and San Francisco, including Min and his family met us there.

Mary Doi: Is Rosalyn Tonai...

Patti Adachi: Rosalyn is also--

Christina Adachi (Tina): Yes!

Mary Doi: Oh, I know Rosalyn.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Yes, Rosalyn Tonai. Absolutely.

Mary Doi: So Kat, you know her too? The museum National Japanese American Historical Society--

Christina Adachi (Tina): --in San Francisco.

Mary Doi: --she's at the Presidio or... Let's see, she's--

Katherine Nagasawa: Oh, I see. Wow.

Mary Doi: Yeah, she's a great person. Really great person.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Yeah so she's one of Min Tonai's daughters.

Mary Doi: Oh, okay, got it. That makes sense.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Yeah so we all were together.

Patti Adachi: No, Grace and Ichiro's daughter.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Oh, I'm sorry.

Patti Adachi: Ichiro and Minoru--

Christina Adachi (Tina): Oh, that's right, that's right, she's Min's niece.

Patti Adachi: And Minoru-- So my grandmother and Min Tonai, and Ichiro's father, are brother and sister and so, Rosalyn is their, is Ichiro's... So, so my mom was first, is first cousins with Minoru and, and Rosalyn? Rosalyn. Yeah, they're first cousins.

Mary Doi: Okay, okay. Now, the name Tonai means something to me.

Patti Adachi: Yeah, and they grew up together. Real close.

Mary Doi: Yeah, I think we're very much at the end but is there anything else 01:02:00you'd like to say?

Patti Adachi: No.

Christina Adachi (Tina): I don't think so. I mean I think we were both, well, it really was Redress that got us into JACL and that just became a really important part of our lives. It really created a sense of community and a, an effort and working for a cause. So we were happy to be part of it and to contribute but I certainly feel like we got as much from it as anything that we, anything that we might have contributed. So it was really--

Patti Adachi: Well, you got involved because of Redress, I got involved because of you. I used to, Tina, whatever she did, I would do it. If she said, "Let's do this", I said "Okay".

Mary Doi: You're the little sister.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Yeah.

Patti Adachi: Yes, I do whatever my big sister suggested.

Mary Doi: Well, this has been absolutely wonderful as an interview and as a conversation. I feel like I'm meeting you again.

Patti Adachi: Yeah, yeah.

Christina Adachi (Tina): We used to babysit for Mary. At least I did I used to babysit for Mary.

Patti Adachi: I did too. I remember babysitting.

Mary Doi: But I don't remember this. So you, you were nice enough, Patti, you were nice enough to say, "Oh, I was probably babysitting your brothers."

Patti Adachi: Well, really your brothers. I mean you yeah, you were not that much younger, but you know, your brothers...

Christina Adachi (Tina): How old are you?

Mary Doi: I'll be 70 this year, so I was born in '53.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Okay, 'cause I was born in '49, so I'm four years--

Patti Adachi: And I'm '50.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Right so you know, if I was 14 when I was babysitting for you, you were only 10.

Mary Doi: 10, yeah.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Yeah, so you still needed a babysitter. (laughs)

Mary Doi: Well, thanks again.

Patti Adachi: You're welcome.

Katherine Nagasawa: I have quick question.

Mary Doi: Yeah, okay.

Katherine Nagasawa: Even if, if you guys aren't recording, I just have a couple of questions about specific people that we're still looking to track down. Do you mind if we could just stay on the phone and I can ask a couple of questions?

Patti Adachi: Yeah, no, sure sure. Yeah, who?

Katherine Nagasawa: Okay. 'Cause I, Mary, I don't know if you shared with them the, the photo of the Redress Committee with all the contact info and the names 01:04:00but you mentioned Janice Honda as being one of the other Sansei. Do you know if she's around?

Patti Adachi: Well she should still be-- Doesn't she, she lives on Balmoral. She lives in a three flat that she inherited. Yeah.

Mary Doi: Is her name still Honda--

Patti Adachi: Janice Honda, yeah, I'm pretty sure. And yeah, you should be able to reach her.

Katherine Nagasawa: Do you know who would still be in touch with her? Or like--

Patti Adachi: Well, Bill would know how to contact her. Bill Yoshino.

Katherine Nagasawa: Okay, cool. And then how about Kurt Clark? Does that ring a bell?

Patti Adachi: I don't know who he is, no.

Christina Adachi (Tina): No.

Katherine Nagasawa: David Isono?

Mary Doi: I know David Isono from the Heiwa board. He's very quiet.

Katherine Nagasawa: Oh, I remember you said okay, I, I remember you did kind of say that.

Mary Doi: And he's a CPA.

Katherine Nagasawa: And how about Frank Sakamoto?

Patti Adachi: Is he still alive? I don't know.

Katherine Nagasawa: Was he a Sansei or was he a Nisei.

Patti Adachi: He's a Nisei. He was a Nisei.

Katherine Nagasawa: A Nisei, okay.

Mary Doi: Who are his kids? Do you know who his kids are? No?

Patti Adachi: No.

Christina Adachi (Tina): No.

Mary Doi: No, okay. All right so then--

Katherine Nagasawa: I imagine maybe he's passed away. And then David Tanaka?

Patti Adachi: I don't know who he is.

Christina Adachi (Tina): His name sounds familiar, but I don't really remember much about him.

Mary Doi: So, let's ask Bill.

Katherine Nagasawa: We can ask Bill, yeah. And the other thing is, I was wondering, does anybody still keep in touch with Mike Ushijima?

Christina Adachi (Tina): Nope, not me.

Katherine Nagasawa: Okay, cool. Thank you so much. That's really helpful. It's good to know that Janice is still around, maybe we can try to ask Bill for her number or something.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Yeah, you should be able to find Janice.

Patti Adachi: Yeah.

Mary Doi: Okay, great. Well, again, both Kat and I thank you profusely.

Patti Adachi: Oh you're welcome!

Katherine Nagasawa: Thank you so much, yeah.

Mary Doi: This was just wonderful. Really, really wonderful.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Well we're happy to do it. 'Cause I think it's a great project. I'm, I'm really, I'm really impressed with what I've seen and heard already and I'll be following what, what's yet to come.

Mary Doi: Hats off to Kat. As somebody else at Full Spectrum says, Kat is a 01:06:00chameleon, that she's great at so many things, not just oral histories, but the analysis of the oral histories, you know, making something as, as sophisticated as that online exhibit. So I think you're in great hands working with Kat.

Patti Adachi: Kat, are you still on the phone? Is she still there?

Katherine Nagasawa: I am, yeah.

Patti Adachi: So you're not, are you going to be back in Chicago? I was looking forward to meeting you. Are you back in Chicago sometime?

Katherine Nagasawa: I'm actually going to fly out on Thursday. I'll be here for the Day of Remembrance event.

Patti Adachi: Oh right.

Katherine Nagasawa: So if you're planning to go to that, I can, I'll definitely be there.

Patti Adachi: I can't. I can't be there.

Mary Doi: Oh, I remember why!

Patti Adachi: We won't go into why! (laughs)

Christina Adachi (Tina): So Kat, how do you like living in California with, with a, like such a, much more visible Asian community?

Katherine Nagasawa: It's so different. I mean I actually grew up in Southern California--

Christina Adachi (Tina): Oh, oh you did.

Katherine Nagasawa: --so in some ways, like I, I kind of left that environment to then go to the Midwest and be one of the only, the only Japanese American I 01:07:00knew in my class in college. So it is really interesting to be steeped in a place where it's so normal to be Asian, where there's so many Asian American journalists like me or creatives and, yeah I feel like it sparked a lot of new community. But I also think that there's something that comes with not having many, many numbers like when we were in Chicago, I feel like the people who were active in community really treasured that and it made the community stronger because we didn't take it for granted, even though we had so many people around.

Patti Adachi: That's, yeah.

Katherine Nagasawa: So, so I do miss Chicago a lot, you know?

Christina Adachi (Tina): Where did you go to college?

Katherine Nagasawa: I went to Northwestern for a journalism school.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Right, right. Okay.

Katherine Nagasawa: But I, I went to the Japan club there trying to find community and it was all white guys who were interested in anime.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Oh God.

Ty Yamamoto: Kat, Kat (laughs)

Katherine Nagasawa: There was no actual Japanese Americans. And there was one Japanese person I met, but she's ethnically Chinese but grew up in Japan. 01:08:00Honestly, it wasn't until I met Mary and Lisa at the Ginza Festival that I really started learning about the resettlement era and the community that came to Chicago. You know and I tapped into that through the Kansha project and other involvements with the young Japanese American-- It's called Next Gen Nikkei Group.

Christina Adachi (Tina): Well, your Curious City Stories are great.

Katherine Nagasawa: Oh, thanks. Thanks. That was my own personal quest to figure out you know, where community was and what happened to the Lakeview and Hyde Park community. So, it was really gratifying to do it and it was all because of Mary and Lisa that I was able to do that story in the first place.

Mary Doi: We bugged her into getting involved. But again, so glad.

Christina Adachi (Tina): I'm glad you did.

Mary Doi: So glad that, that she is.

Patti Adachi: You were going to ask her question?

Ty Yamamoto: Oh, no, it's okay. Kat, I'm, I'm in conversation with the Northwestern Japan Club right now, but I don't know much about them. I assume it's the same though, they're asking for similar program from me, programs from 01:09:00me, so--

Mary Doi: Anime for white guys.

Katherine Nagasawa: You know the thing is though, in the years after I graduated, I think I went back to campus for something and I met some actual Japanese Americans who were trying to revitalize, so I think there's more now.

Ty Yamamoto: Really? When I was, when I was in college, we had a Japan club and I had two, two... I think we were all Yonsei, Sansei or Yonsei and then mostly yeah, mostly you know the anime type. Although, we did have a lot of exchange students from Japan, so maybe that, that balanced out a little bit.

Katherine Nagasawa: Yeah, true. So funny.

Mary Doi: I think it's really interesting how for Japanese Americans, anime and like cosplay, like what the heck is this? We're really not part of that world, we're part of this ethnic world that is not... We're not Japanophiles as I like to think, but yeah, really different. Really different.

Ty Yamamoto: Very different.

Mary Doi: So, all right, are we on time to get you...

Patti Adachi: Oh yeah, I probably should...