~ Visit the official JAMsj website ~
AAPI & Japanese American Museum of San Jose
Digital Archive

Richard Konda

Date: January 18, 2023
 Interviewer: Yvonne Kwan and Ellina Yin
 Interviewee: Richard Konda (1951 - )

Born as a Sansei in San Francisco, California, Konda grew up in San Francisco, went law school at Santa Clara, and became involved in Asian law student groups and the Asian Law Alliance. He continued community work after law school and was involved in founding the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee in San Jose. Konda continues to be a community and legislative advocate for civil rights, public safety, etc.

Transcript of Richard Konda

Click on any section of the transcript to jump directly to that segment of the video. This feature lets you quickly access the content you're interested in without the need to manually search through the entire video. You can also click on the tick below each transcript to expand the text and read the full content without playing that segment of the video.

Timeframe 0:00 >> 3:37

My name is Richard Konda. Date of birth is February 27th, 1951. I was born in San Francisco, California. So my father's name was Harry Konda, and he was born in the area which is now Fremont, but it was at the time called Centerville and his date of birth. I don't have it right in front of me, unfortunately. So my father was a he was a he was a farmer as a young person. And after World War Two, he later worked at Simmons Mattress Company. And it was in San Francisco. And then the company moved over to San Leandro, California.

(Interviewer) And then if it's relevant, can you share a little bit of your family's immigration experience? How many generations back or whatever that you remember?

So I'm a third generation sansei so my grandparents arrived in the early 1900s. Then both my parents were born in in California.

(Interviewer) Did you grow up around your grandparents at all?

Not that much. My grandfather on my father's side lived with us when I was a young boy, but he passed away when I was, I think, four or five. And the other grandparents on my mother's side lived in the Central Valley. So we would visit them from time to time, but not that often.

(Interviewer) Did your father's side of the family ever tell you and your generation about why your grandparents decided to move to the United States?

I think I don't know that that was shared with us. It was just my understanding they came for better opportunities. So my mother's name was Lucy Hiroshi. What's her maiden name? She was born in the Central Valley in the town of Delano, and I don't remember her exact date of birth, unfortunately. So she was mostly a housewife. Although she did sell Avon as a little side business.

(Interviewer) Do you have any memories of your mother selling Avon?

Oh, sure. I mean, we we would she would have stuff organized and we would help her from time to time. Would put the orders together or put yeah, we would help her assemble the orders from time to time. So on my mother's side, the grandparents came here in the early 1900s. Again, they came for a better opportunity. They were they had a small farm in the Central Valley.

(Interviewer) So they directly went to the Central Valley and stayed there for the most part?

Yeah, pretty much.

(Interviewer) How did your parents meet?

So they were both incarcerated during World War Two. One, my father. My father was in the concentration camp that was located in Utah called Topaz. My mother was in the in the in the concentration camp that was in Arkansas. She didn't stay there that long. And she ended up working in Minnesota. So after the war concluded, just by chance, they both moved to Chicago. They were living in the same building and that and eventually got married. And from Chicago they moved back to California in the in around 1948, I believe.

Systems & Power Timeframe 3:37 >> 6:51

So that's the interesting thing about the camp experience. I think the first time I really heard about it was a neighbor girl came over. She was doing out some kind of project for school. And then my father explained to her what had happened. Prior to that. They spoke very, very little to myself or my sister about what had happened to them. It was something that wasn't very pleasant for them. But again, when the neighbor girl came over, he shared his experience. And and I think that's the first time I ever really heard him talk about it.

(Interviewer) How did you feel when you finally heard these these things that your your father was sharing and especially that you hadn't heard it at all while growing up?

I mean, it was it was shocking and disturbing that, you know, that they had had to move far away from their homes and living in these desolate conditions. And then later on, I mean, you know, he became more open about it and and maybe because he felt like we were young and small and couldn't really understand it. But later in later years, he was much more open about it and in fact, made it a point to take us to Utah so we could see what what the terrain was around this Topaz. And when was it was in just this desert area where there was just nothing growing and a lot of tumbleweeds. Yeah, I just remember when we went there was it was it was on this road that was going nowhere and it was just dry and desolate and hot and dusty. And we walked around a little bit and I think we found some foundations from some buildings of some sort. But at that time there was no marker or anything that would lead you to know that it was there. But he he could he kind of figured out where I was just based on his his memories.

(Interviewer) Do you find that this is a history that continues to be important from your perspective and why? It's important for us to educate our younger generations about Japanese concentration camps, Japanese American concentration camps and incarceration?

Yeah, certainly. Understanding what can happen to civil liberties, civil rights of a whole group of people and how the government can categorize people based on their national origin is important to understand that things can, you know, history can repeat itself, you know, in times of of crisis after 9/11 or other situations, you know, there have been these plans, that secret plan drawn up on, you know, what would we do if we needed to round up anybody from a Muslim country or, you know, how how would that work? And so it's significant and important. And, you know, again, then the Trump Muslim travel ban as well. There's been so there have been many instances where, for whatever reason, the government may decide to take away the civil liberties and rights of an entire group of people.

Timeframe 6:51 >> 10:32

(Interviewer) Thank you for sharing that. And then also, you mentioned this earlier, but I believe you have some siblings. Can you name their can you can you share their names and also birth order?

Yeah, sure. Well, I have one older sister. Her name is Rita, and she was born a couple of years before I was born.

(Interviewer) Also in San Francisco?

Right. She she still lives in the family home in San Francisco. So I was born and raised in San Francisco and our family grew up in or I grew up in a in a neighborhood that at the time was it was kind of the second area where Italian Americans lived. I mean, North Beach would be the first area in San Francisco. And the area that I live was a second area. And you could kind of tell there was a strong presence of Italian Americans based on the markets and stores along the the business street that was close by. You know, there were a couple of Italian markets, delicatessens, that sold different varieties of Italian kinds of deli meat, etc.. So that that that's the way the neighborhood was when I grew up. It was kind of this secondary area where Italian Americans grew up and there were very few Asian Americans at the time in that area.

(Interviewer) What do you think your parents chose to settle the family in that area of San Francisco?

Oh, it's my understanding that they they were renting an apartment in the what was at that time the San Francisco Japantown area. And they were just looking for a house somewhere. And that's the house they ended up finding. I'm not sure exactly why that that it was available in affordable. Oh, just like anything else, we would get together with other family members, you know, take trips to different places. It was pretty family oriented. Like on my mom's side in particular, there was a large group of brothers and sisters who lived both along the peninsula and then also some in central California. And so from time to time, we would we would travel down to visit our her sister and brother who lived in the Central Valley area. And then there was another brother who lived in Long Beach. And from time to time we'd go down to visit that family. So there was a lot of visiting families. I was one of the persons who never was, quote unquote, forced to go to Japanese language schools on Saturdays and over these reasons, I never was. I'm not bilingual. And so I when we used to communicate with our grandparents, it was somewhat they were speaking broken English, but we didn't really understand Japanese. So it was difficult at times. So I you know, my closest friend was our Italian American kid who lived around the corner. You know, So we we were in the Cub Scouts together, and we had those kinds of activities related to Cub Scouts going camping. My sister was a campfire girl. And so there were a lot of activities related to her. And so sometimes we would tag along. Actually, my my good friend and I would tag along with the campfire girls. And when if they went camping or whatever, we would we would be the two boys on the camping trip.

Timeframe 10:32 >> 15:26

Um, well, all I can say is after so after I was in the Cub Scouts locally, my father's friends were involved with a Boy Scout troop in the San Francisco Japantown area. And so that's, that's when I got really exposed to Japanese Americans other than my relatives and cousins because we joined one of the troops. I was based in the San Francisco Japantown area. At that time that the community was getting kind of dispersed out. I mean, the church was a couple of the churches were located in the San Francisco Japantown area, but most people actually didn't live there anymore and would traveling from different parts of San Francisco to come to that, the Boy Scout meetings that were held in. In the case of the church, I was, I belong to it, was one of these churches that was a Shinto church, the Konko Church, and the meetings were held in in in this garage, kind of converted garage that was used for meetings.

(Interviewer) It's really interesting to see how the community had had kind of sprawled out a little bit, dispersed. But the Boy Scouts were still meeting together in Japantown.

Right. I mean, one of the one of the troops was based at the a Buddhist church was again, was located in the heart of the San Francisco Japantown.

(Interviewer) And then also in your, you know, more of adolescent teenage years, were there certain ways and you you remember interacting with media, in particular television or radio?

Not as an adolescent I that I didn't have that much contact with media at that time.

(Interviewer) How about as you know, older as a teenager?

Not even as a teenager. I think any kind of media experience occurred. Actually. I would say after I was in law school or and or became aware. The only thing well, I can share with you. One of the things that's kind of interesting is that as a law student, we were trying to protect different affirmative action programs across the state. And so there was a there was a demonstration of sorts at Hastings College of the Law, which is it's no longer called Hastings, but at the time it was then. And that that law school is located in San Francisco. And I, I just went up with a group of law students and didn't even call my mom or dad or anything. And then when I went to San Francisco a few weeks later, my mom said, “Oh, I see you were in San Francisco a few weeks ago.” I said, Yes. And then so she apparently my picture was in this group, picture of a bunch of law students sitting in front of the law school. And she said, there, there you are. And there I was.

(Interviewer) But yet you didn't attend Hastings.

No, I mean, but we were there in support of the affirmative action program. So that's why a group of us from Santa Clara traveled up and helped, you know, we're part of the crowd.

(Interviewer) All right. Any childhood heroes that you remember while you were growing up?

Um, you know, I. I can't say that there was anyone in particular—other than, you know, my parents. My mom and dad, I think, are the heroes. I mean, all I can say is that one thing that participated in the Boy Scouts, which kind of left an imprint on me was this idea that, you know, you needed to persevere and, you know, not and be responsible for your actions. That was kind of drilled into us at the meetings that, you know, you guys need to, you know, get into shape and do what you're supposed to do and, you know, take care of business. And so and the thing that was interesting about the Boy Scout troop is that many of the leaders were kibei, which means that they were born in the United States. They went back to Japan to get educated, and then most of them came back before the war, before World War Two. So when we went to meetings, most of the leaders spoke with a fairly strong accent. And so when they were I mean, really, they were yelling at us about we were we were not, you know, acting or we're acting up or not behaving as we should. And they would kind of yell at us in their somewhat broken English. And that made an impression on me that when we got to watch out or we're going to get yelled at.

Timeframe 15:26 >> 16:41

So I went to the local neighborhood elementary school. It was called E.R. Taylor. And then for a middle school, which at the time we used to call it junior high, it was because it was for seventh, eighth and ninth grade, I went to Portola Junior High. And then for high school I went to the Lowell High School.

(Interviewer) And during the school years, did you have any teachers that were mentors or made a significant impact on you during the school years? I can't. I saw that question. I can't really think of any name that jumps out at me. Honestly. There's no one teacher that I can think of. So went out once I joined the Boy Scouts, there were sports attached to that. So there was a baseball team that was attached to it. There was also what was called a drum and bugle corps, where we would march in different parades. So those and camping. So that was that kept us fairly busy.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 16:41 >> 20:57

So for the first two years, I went to City College of San Francisco, and from there I transferred to UC Berkeley and I majored in political science, but not really at that moment knowing that I would go to law school. That's that was my major. I graduated from UC Berkeley, and then for two years I actually worked in a and in a warehouse of a relative. That's actually the point where I began to think about maybe going to law school. Most of my coworkers at the warehouse were Korean immigrants, and they would from time to time come into the warehouse and just ask me to help them with their PG&E bill or some kind of something that I could help them with. And so I, I, I would give them what assistance I could to clarify things, try to tell them, you know, this is really what's going on. And from that, I thought, you know, maybe I should consider law school. This is this is something that I could see people need help with. And that kind of led me to apply to law school. When I started law school, I really wasn't sure. It was a large law student association at Santa Clara. And, you know, as we entered as first year students, they were there to kind of mentor us. And there were a group of students at the time who were working on a community project which was called the Information and Referral Project.

They were collaborating with the local Japanese American Citizens League to do this project. And so the first, the summer of my first year of that project was just getting started. And so we would go down to the Japanese American Citizens League Building and then we would answer the phone and we would try to connect people to different resources in the community. That's that's what the Information and Referral Project was all about, just providing a connection for people to find resources. From that, the Asian Law Alliance developed as a separate project and then the Information and Referral Project kind of ceased to exist at the point we got Asian Law Alliance going.

Yeah. So when I when I started at Santa Clara again, there was an Asian Law student Association. And so I, I kind of joined that up. And then that group had various committees and various projects and they had like an admissions committee, and then they had this community project committee, which eventually I did join. And again we started the information and referral project and then the transition to the Asian Law Alliance so that it was a project of the law student group at Santa Clara. And we we had a lot of volunteers from Santa Clara helping us to do the work. I mean, when I joined, it was just they were the group was there to offer support to the new incoming students. So I was happy to meet people that were there to to to offer some assistance to me because I, I really didn't understand what law school was going to be about. And so that was reassuring and helpful. And then when I learned about the the project that was being considered, you know, I thought I thought that that was really interesting and seemed to be a lot of fun to do. At the time, I'm not sure that any of us really knew or expected that 40 somewhat years later the Asian allies would still be around. I mean, at the time we were just trying to get something going and help some people on it.

It's hard to know at that time what would happen in the future. But I think we had we had we had the guidance of a few of of a few lawyers, one lawyer in particular, Don Tamaki, had been involved with the of the founding of the Asian Law Caucus, which was located up in Oakland, San Francisco area. And so he offered a lot of guidance to us and helped us kind of figure out what we needed to do and how to get the organization started.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 20:57 >> 24:02

(Interviewers) Were there any themes or yeah, I guess themes that you noticed with API and the law and you know, that relationship within the community and how it's impacted us obviously, but also how maybe we use the law to impact other communities and be more inclusive?

I think at the time we were getting it started, we we wanted to try to provide, you know, some assistance to people who couldn't access the system for whatever reason because of language and culture. And so I think the idea of getting, you know, equal access to the justice system was really important to us. One of the issues that we encountered early on was there was a there was a teacher in the town of Hollister, and every December seven, he had a standard speech he would give about, you know, Pearl Harbor Day. And it just so happened that one of the students in the class was an exchange student from Japan. And so he found the lectures to be disturbing to him. And he brought this issue to the attention of the Japanese American citizens, which was located in Hollister, and they didn't know exactly what to do. So they reached out to the San Jose Japanese American Citizens League.

And it just happened that the Asian Law Alliance, you know, we're sitting in the office and so then we we mobilized and started driving down to Holister just to find out what was going on and offer some support to the Japanese speaking student. One of our staff members could speak Japanese, so he would drive down with us and be able to kind of speak to this Japanese student in Japanese. And he he felt a lot better. And, you know, we tried to advocate for being a little more sensitive to, you know, what what does Pearl Harbor really mean? And he was the teacher was using some derogatory language during this lecture as well. And so we tried to provide some education to the school system down in Hollister around, you know, what what just kind of appropriate language to use. So the legal system is designed, unfortunately, by a lot of lawyers and sometimes it designed in a way that makes it not accessible. But I think the important message is that we need to try to educate ourselves as much as we can about the legal system. That's one of the important aspects of the Asia Law Alliance is to provide education to people about how to access the system, how the system works, how you can try to protect your rights. And so that if you know some of the basics or at least you're in a little better position than if you don't know anything at all. So we think that some basic education is always critical.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 24:02 >> 28:16

(Interviewer) And so you were attending Berkeley, I think just shortly after Third World Liberation Movement. Did you experience any of that as well?

Yeah, I was there on a number of occasions where I tried to make it a point not to walk into tear gas and to avoid the areas where people were having issues with the with law enforcement. I was just trying to get home or go back to work or whatever. So I was not involved in any other student strikes or protests. But I do recall there were certain days where I knew something was happening, so I would make it a point to travel away from the area and not not get any tear gas in my eyes.

(Interviewer) So, I mean, given the work that you would do later on, I think that like perhaps as a young person seeing this as well, perhaps not fully being part of that movement, but also seeing the police, the police response. Right. Did that kind of ever shape your approach to thinking about civil liberties, making sure people understand their legal rights and all of that?

Yeah, I think it did. I think it made an imprint. And I and I can say and I, I will share that there is a photo exhibit, photo exhibit it called Executive Order 9066, and it was touring the country. And at the time I was at Berkeley, it was making its rounds through Berkeley, and I forget exactly where it was, but it was a photo exhibit. So I went on one weekend with my family and we viewed it, and there's this picture of my grandfather and my aunt sitting in a converted horse stall at the Tanforan race center. And so my aunt, who had since passed away, had said, Oh, that's that's me in the picture, in the background, you know. So I kind of looked at it and then I decided later our during the school, when I was there during school, just to take another look at the photos because, you know, it's kind of hard with a bunch of people to really look at it. And I, I spent some time looking at the photos again and just thinking, you know, there were living in horse stalls, and it wasn't a pleasant experience at all. And so that that picture was taken by Dorothea Lange. And I, I always ask my father, how come you're not in any of the pictures? And he said, Well, you know, I was standing in back of her with the camera. So that's why, you know, you're your aunt and grandfather in the picture. But I'm not.

(Interviewer) Thank you for sharing that story of my dissertation advisor was a sansei. Her name's Dana Takagi, and she would also talk about a similar experience as you are seeing these photos and going like, Oh, that's my uncle. Or Oh, I know that this person. So it must be such a weird experience or like an interesting experience where you're going to see an exhibit, but you literally have a personal connection to the people in the photo. So thank you for sharing that.

So just, just, just to kind of expound on that, I mean, later, I've as I indicated, I we took a family trip to Topaz and there was pilgrimages to the truly like, concentration camp. I went two or three times on the bus up there. And then later much, much, much later, my wife and my son and I went out to Arkansas to visit the two camps in Arkansas. And so I've and we've seen a number of them. And again, the common characteristic is they're in these very desolate places where nothing else is there.

(Interviewer) So as your son was learning this history and going through these experiences, was there something that you're noticing with with now a new generation learning this history?

Yeah, I'm not sure my son appreciated that that much at the time. He was a middle schooler and we kind of dragged him along. But hopefully it will make an impact on him at some point. I'm not sure at the time he he was enjoying it that much.

Timeframe 28:16 >> 29:18

Yeah, I I'm married. And actually my my son is 20 Oh, he's 22 now. He yeah, he just had his 22nd birthday. He's down in Riverside. And in a way, we have we have a house here in San Jose. We lived here for a long time. So we were, again, we're working on the Asian Law Alliance as this kind of community project, law school project, and a group of us just stayed on and continued working. We were able to secure some small funding. And so there was a there was actually a group of us who graduated together with me, who went from being a volunteer at Asian Law Alliance to a staff member. Prior to that, we had a small staff that we had had started the organization, and so then I joined right after I graduated from law school.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 29:18 >> 31:00

I'm the currently the executive director of Asian Law Alliance. But also, in addition to that, I do get involved in different issues, voting rights related issues. But my primary function is as the executive director of Asian Law Alliance. So some of the current projects are we're actually planning to to celebrate the 46th anniversary of the Asian Law Alliance later this year. And that's that's a major project. We also are involved in different kinds of advocacy projects. So one of the areas of advocacy is to try to get attack canines banned statewide. And so we're working with other individuals and organizations to develop some legislation around that. We're also trying to stop the county from arming deputies with tasers, which we think are lethal and dangerous weapons. But lately, we've also been involved with advocacy work about Chancellor Keon, Purdue University, Northwest, who made some very racist comments during a commencement speech. And so those some of the advocacy issues we've been involved with more recently. I, I would say that sometimes having a law degree or being a lawyer is an advantage that it give gives you somewhat more access than other people may have, which really shouldn't be that way. But sometimes it just does. I would say that's the main thing I would focus on.

Timeframe 31:00 >> 35:53

(Interviewer) And were there ever any instances that you felt because of your race and identity? Did you experience racism during your career.

You know, that's a hard question for me to answer. I'm I'm I don't know that I can pinpoint anything in particular that I can think of at this point.

(Interviewer) Have you worked on any cases in which you've seen or supported people who did experience racism and the such, either in the workplace or otherwise?

I mean, I have I have not personally done those particular kind of cases, but our office has been involved with cases where it seemed like there was a racial component involved, whether it be because they were trying to get a job or because they were denied housing. You've seen there have been instances like that that our office has been involved with. So I guess when I was in law school, we learned kind of the basics of constitutional law and contract law and real [estate] property law and somewhat in an abstract way. And going forward, you know, you can see how in instances the law just is not fair. There may be instances where, you know, a tenant just is going to get kicked out and the landlord is going to be unfair to such a tenant or in an employment situation, an employee may know or suspect that there's discrimination, but it's hard to prove it. So I think what I've learned over the years is that the law is limited in some ways. And so sometimes there needs to be actions that are just beyond the courtroom, whether it be advocacy or legislative advocacy that is kind of beyond just the courtroom. That's kind of the path toward gaining some amount of equity or justice.

So what specifically legislative advocacy would be to try to design some legislation that would impact a certain kind of issue. So I'll just be very concrete. Let's say we're talking about attack canines that police departments use to apprehend people. What we're trying to do is we're trying to outlaw that so that that those kinds of attack dogs are outlawed statewide. So that would be a specific piece of legislative advocacy. The other kind of advocacy is more it may not be pertaining to a specific piece of legislation, but it might be along a particular issue. So, you know, maybe we're talking about stopping all this hate speech, hate crimes directed toward API community. And so we're trying to advocate for better kind of not specific laws, but better education around, you know, Asian American studies, Asian Pacific, American studies, so that people can have a better sense of who people are. And not that we're a group to be hated, but a group that has contributed.

Legislator advocacy, anybody any group of people can do that. So certainly it's helpful to maybe have a lawyer involved in terms of crafting some specific language. But when it comes down to visiting a legislator, trying to make the case for particular law, you know, you don't have to be a lawyer to do that. In fact, sometimes the people most impacted can carry the most powerful message. So if you're talking about police violence, for example, a family impacted by police violence, somebody who's lost a loved one because of police violence, they can be some of the most strongest and most knowledgeable and convincing advocates. Yeah, I think I think it's it's essential the young people are involved with this kind of activity. And I would say step one would be, you know, it's helpful and most useful if a group of people can kind of get together, study an issue, become knowledgeable on an issue. And then again, if you can find out people who are impacted by a particular issue or law and if they can join up with a group, I think that adds a powerful element to a group or a coalition.

Timeframe 35:53 >> 36:51

(Interviewer) Where do we engage in that legislative process, as I guess consumers like, what rights do we have to kind of shape this new terrain that's really shaped, you know, the world that we live in right now?

So that's a very difficult issue and a problem. It's not an equal kind of relationship between the consumer and the that whatever entity we're talking about. What I could say is that, you know, we need to read, read the fine print and know what we're signing and agreeing to. And if we think that if there's provisions that really need to be changed, maybe push back and say, hey, I have problems with this, and maybe there's a possibility of getting some changes, but that it's that's a real hard one.

Timeframe 36:51 >> 38:59

So the idea behind the founding of Asian Law Alliance really was there was no organization that focused on the legal needs of the growing AAPI community. And so that's kind of that's I think that the thing that really drove the organization forward is to kind of fill the gap when there was nothing there at the time. So, you know, in the seventies there were organizations that focus on low-income people, but nobody focused on the AAPI community, which was just in the process of growing by leaps and bounds. You know, you had a large group of refugees from Southeast Asia entering. You had other immigrants from other countries entry. You also had an existing group of elderly AAPI seniors who were here as well, and some, you know, some amount of working people so that that group that their need there was just an unmet need. And so that's that was I think thing that really pushed us to do something as we went out into the community and started talking to different leaders and whatever they would keep saying, you know, there's really nobody out there that's providing any kind of services, doing any kind of advocacy, doing any kind of education work for our communities. And if you guys are you folks or your organization can begin that, that would be most helpful. So that's that was part of the reason we started is we when we were starting, we we made it a point to visit with community leaders, organizations and try to get a sense of what was going on, what what the needs were. And so there are some of the needs are the same needs as we see today. I mean immigration really needs are family law issues, domestic violence issues with landlords and tenants and, you know, unfair, unscrupulous landlords, those kinds of issues kept coming up over and over again.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 38:59 >> 44:12

Yeah, so we did need to battle against a lot of minority myth. I mean, sometimes we would meet with people, and they would say, well, you know, all of the Asians we know are engineers at Lockheed or NASA or wherever. And, you know, we don't see we don't see that. And so then we would need to then point out that, in fact, there were, again, the elderly, there were new immigrants, and in fact, there were these needs that were not being met. So it was it was difficult at times. But again, as the community grew and grew and there were more people coming from either outside the United States as immigrants or refugees or others, just secondary. You know, some refugees may have been resettled elsewhere, but because, you know, there was a lure of good jobs or better weather, people may have been resettled in Minnesota or Wisconsin or wherever. Some people, as a secondary migration came to California. So as the community began to grow, then it became a lot easier for us to then point out to the statistics. And that even though the model minority was still there, we would we would then empower it with, you know, the data, which showed that in fact there were large numbers of refugees coming in and immigrants arriving.

I think from the very beginning we thought it was real important to to get feedback and the concerns of the community in figuring out how to structure and what kind of programs to offer. And so, again, when we when we met with community leaders, community members, you know, we would we would try to find out from them, you know, what what do you need? What are the issues you see? When we started the organization, we had an outreach worker who was Korean speaking. We had an outreach worker who had Japanese speaking, and we had an outreach worker who was Samoan speaking. And so they kind of helped us in that outreach to to really meet with individuals and organizations and get a kind of a temperature read on, you know, what, what people needed, what were the issues.

I mean, one of the early issues was the whole issues of redress and reparations for Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War two. And so we were part of a larger coalition called the National Coalition for Redress and Reparations. And so we got involved with that effort to try to petition the government for redress. And we we were involved again with other organizations. And that's kind of a common theme throughout our history, is that in most of the issues we've been engaged in, it's it's a it's a collaborative our coalition related work. So again, the redress issue was was done not only by Asian Law Alliance, but by a bunch of other organizations locally in San Jose, there was a group called the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee, which actually I was involved in founding that group. And so Asian Law Alliance, Nihonmachi Outreach Committee and other groups, individuals worked on the redress issue for Japanese Americans who were incarcerated. So that was certainly a significant issue that we were engaged in. So the actually the impetus between behind founding the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee was, that we learned that the city of San Jose was planning to possibly do a major redevelopment in the San Jose Japantown area. And so we became very concerned that the community members understand what that meant. And so that's why it was called the Outreach Committee, because it our initial initial reason why we started was to try to share with community members what the city was planning to do.

As it turned out, they did not do that redevelopment. And actually it's just recently the piece of property that was the city corporation yard now has apartment building on it, but that's 40 years later. But only when we started not it was initially to, to really do outreach around possible redevelopment in the San Jose Japantown, eventually not transitioned to becoming a very key member of the National Coalition for Redress and Reparations, or NCRR. And so NOC has been involved with that and NOC also annual Day of Remembrance that commemorates the signing of Franklin Roosevelt of the Executive Order 9066, which was the executive order that resulted in the incarceration of Japanese Americans by the US government during World War Two. So that's kind of how I got involved at NOC. And in fact, when NOC first started, not was meeting at the Asian Law Alliance office for a while, for a number of years.

Timeframe 44:12 >> 44:54

(Interviewer) And this is just I'm just curious, what are your thoughts about the all of the redevelopment and the, you know, that's happening in Japantown today?

Yeah. So all of the different industrial complexes are now these high rent apartments. I guess it was just going to happen. I you know, at this point I think there was an effort by community to try to get certain concessions over the building that other than a one block building. So there I believe there are going to be different aspects of that particular development that will be more for community to to use and community space and so on. But I guess it's a good thing. I'm not sure.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 44:54 >> 47:33

(Interviewer) What are areas of continued growth that you see? What's kind of the next phase, the next the vision for the next generation for Asian Law Alliance?

I mean, the way we see it, as our communities are continuing to come into the United States, new immigrants. And so there are always issues that newer space, whether it be, you know, basic understanding of how the legal system works. So I think that's always going to be key to us. You know, certainly we need to address all the anti-Asian hate and violence and, you know, people feeling unsafe and not wanting to go out or elderly feeling afraid of going shopping or whatever that so that that's an issue that is current now and we're hoping we can address over the next number of years. And again, we we we continue to want to be concerned about how the immigration process treats people and how it's basically a very unfair system.

So SIREN or Services, Immigrant rights, and Education Network, word actually has its roots in a network that was formed by not only Asian Law Alliance, but a number of other organizations. We used to come together and meet as a network for immigrant refugee rights and services. And so over the years, you know, we did we tried to do advocacy on immigration related issues. I remember one one project that we did was we actually took out an ad in the San Jose Mercury News on the contributions of immigrants and the positive contributions. And so a group of us were working on this project on our spare time, and we started looking at each other and saying, you know, we we need to have an organization with full time staff that can really take up this work because it's hard for us to do this in a kind of collaborative, a collective way. And so that's how SIREN was founded. And I was the board president for a number of years. And so again, SIREN has a strong advocacy program as well as doing direct services, whether it be citizenship, DACA removal defense. So it's an important kind of organization in the community as well.

(Interviewer) And are you still involved with SIREN now?

And now I'm on the board. I'm no longer the board president. Somebody else has taken over that role. I haven't been board president for, I don't know, five or six years luckily.

Timeframe 47:33 >> 49:07

(Interviewer) And so you were also the founding member of the Coalition for Justice and Accountability. And can you share the genesis story of how that was formed and the current issues that are of concern to the CJA?

All right. So in 2003, there was a very tragic shooting by a Saturday police officer that called to try and was a young mother with two young kids, and she was having a very bad day. A neighbor called and police arrived and within a few seconds she shot dead and the police officer, Chad Marshall, shot and killed her. Claims that she thought she was going to use a Vietnamese vegetable peeler to somehow kill him or injure him. And so that's why he ran into trying to kill her. That issue was a very disturbing issue to everybody. And so out of that, the Coalition for Justice and Accountability formed specifically around the county tried case. But since then, we've taken up other kinds of police accountability, police misconduct issues. We've advocated against tasers. We're currently advocating against police attack dogs, and we're trying to stop the county of Santa Clara from our arming all of its deputies with tasers. Those are some of the issues that CJA has been involved with.

Timeframe 49:07 >> 50:07

So they are currently working on the attack dogs. Is there any other things that they're working on today? That the police of the the Taser issue and the sheriff currently the sheriff does not on are none of the deputies in the sheriff's departments have tasers. And so there was a proposal at the November or the supervisors meeting that tasers, be that certain deputies be armed with tasers. That issue was deferred until February of this year. And so we are actually been meeting with members of the board. We have a meeting with the sheriff in a couple of days, the newly elected sheriff. And so we're trying to make the case that Tasers are lethal weapons and are not should not be, and no deputies should be armed with a Taser.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 50:07 >> 52:15

(Interviewer) You are also part of the process of co-creating the the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. And so can you walk us through the process of creating that? You know, what was the hardest part? What was the easiest part?

So we were at the time, part of our local coalition trying to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform. This is back in the eighties. And so we Asian Law Alliance, along with many other organizations were were having meetings and hearings and trying to trying to convince the legislators that there was need to reform immigration law to allow for a path to citizenship for the many undocumented immigrants who were in the United States. And so eventually the federal government did enact the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986. Honestly, we were not happy with the law. We thought it was very limited in a lot of ways. But when it was enacted, we felt it was our duty at that point and to help as many people as possible to gain status and get on a path towards citizenship. That's back in 1986. And since then there has not been another reform act when it's badly needed. But at the time it was very limited in a lot of ways, and it left a lot of people out. But again, when the law was enacted, then we kind of shifted gears. I mean, we were very critical of the law when it was being debated because it just had too many it just had too many limitations. We wanted a much more broad and comprehensive piece of legislation. But again, as it was enacted, then many of us became much more very involved in trying to help people get on the path to citizenship. But by applying through that Immigration Reform and Control Act.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 52:15 >> 56:42

Yeah, I think it's really important to to work on these issues together across groups. And so, you know, whether it be immigration issues, the police reform issues of we need to kind of gather our group together. So again, like for CJA for police issues, you know, we have members who are from various different constituencies that come together and, you know, discuss and try to develop the strategies. The same thing is true for the immigration reform efforts. Those coalitions were very broad and involve a lot of different organizations across different ethnicities as well. Yeah, it's important to to find those issues we can work on together. We're just we're stronger together. Yeah. Just to highlight an issue that were that just came up recently regarding the the Chancellor of Purdue University Northwest. We've circulated that a letter and you know two of the first groups to sign on to the letter were the local NAACP chapter as well as the La Raza roundtable. And so the letter that we submitted to the Board of Trustees of Purdue included not only local API groups, but again, a range of like the Latino coalition, some groups that are principally Black serving organizations again, and NCAA is a key organization.

So many times they'll be an issue that will come up and we'll rally around each other to offer support. So that's real important, I think. I think the relationships that they've built up over the years so that there is a trust and cooperation between groups and individuals. I saw the chancellor, Chancellor Thomas Keon, during a commencement in December at Purdue. Purdue Northwest mocked a Chinese accent. And his explanation, quote unquote, explanation was it was off the cuff. He really didn't mean it. And he offered a very I'll just say, a very lame kind of reasoning. And the the trustees reprimand handed him. We think that for an institution of higher learning, for the chancellor to do such a thing is disgrace, is a disgrace, a despicable. And he should resign immediately. And for and then the other thing that was even more disturbing was he he decided he would lead a diversity and inclusion task force. He's the last person to do that. The letter calls that he should be fired. I mean, honestly, you know, for for a college university like Purdue, that's very highly regarded to allow for a chancellor to remain on the job, given what he did at commencement, and also given that people sitting behind in a commencement scene seemed to think it was funny and it's not funny, it's not something to be laughed that, you know, and given that we're in this tide of anti-Asian, they think this is going to help. I mean, I'm sure that that that video of him mocking a Chinese accents probably circulating on the Internet and people think it's I think it's funny and it's again it's not and we really need to stop it and he needs to be fired If he does if you won't resign.

So, I mean, it's clear to me that the former president's use of, you know, kung flu and all that other stuff was is directly related to this rise in anti-Asian hate and violence and I know there are some who would want to deny that. I disagree. I think it's clear to me that that there's a direct connection there. So if you connect the dots between that and the chancellor's remarks, again, it just has to stop. And for the for the for that institution to allow him remain on the job, given his conduct is really a disgrace.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 56:42 >> 59:56

So if you go to the Asia Law Alliance website, you'll notice that we have this kind of tagline working for justice, dignity, equality. I think each of those words are really significant to me. And so those are the concepts behind, you know, what we do. Justice is a hard concept to move towards. But you know what? That's what we want. You know, dignity, basically. Everybody has their rights and equality. Again, you know, all of us want to be treated equally. So those are the things that I would hope that people could think of me and also of the organization.

(Interviewer) Yeah. And, you know, with the Asian Law Alliance, you're working across many different communities. So was it something that just throughout your lifetime you saw a lot of connection with other APA/AAPI folks, or was something that you kind of have figured out along the way that, you know, there's more power in numbers and that even though we're very diverse as a larger API group, we do have shared commonalities. How do you balance those two?

Yeah, it's it's it's tricky. But I think again, the commonalities are certainly there and that I mean, I think of the incident of Vincent Chen, who was killed in Detroit and he was there he was in a he was in a strip club for his his bachelor party and got into it because the auto worker started accusing him of being the cause of that downturn, the economy, and used some racial epithets toward him. You know, Vincent died and had his head beaten in a baseball bat by a person who thought he was a quote unquote, Jap. Yeah. Even as a child, I can recall another kid calling me a quote unquote chink. I knew that was something that was really hurtful. I did tell him I'm not Chinese, but I don't like being called that either. So I think that all of us in the community need to remember that there are common issues and concerns that all of us face and that those things kind of draw us together. Working in coalitions can be tricky at times because there may be people who are coming in with a certain agenda up their sleeve and you need to be kind of aware of those. But I think it's best to be genuine and just straightforward about what what what is it that we're really here to accomplish? And is it for somebody to have their name, you know, in bold print in the newspaper, or is it really to move forward the issue?

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 59:56 >> 1:04:16

(Interviewer) So in your community activism on end or your personal life, did you have any vivid memories or stories maybe like a turning point in in your life in activism and and community organizing?

I guess probably the I spoke about this earlier, but the incident in Hollister, just because, you know, we as a as a group of law students, we we got very involved with with that particular exchange student, and we drove to Hollister on more cases than I can remember. And in the fact that we helped that community because the Hollister community just they just didn't know what to do or how to handle it. You know, we we we went down there to try to offer some assistance. I think that that that instance definitely left an imprint going forward beyond that point. Oh, yeah. So it's it's always hard to balance things. I mean, there are always demands from the office or, you know, coworkers or what have you and their family related demands. And I would say that in order to have an understanding spouse and understanding son who would understand that sometimes dad was going to be out in the meeting late or what have you are doing something over the weekend. So just the support and understanding of, you know, son and spouse is real important.

I would point out you I've mentioned Don Tamaki as one of the lawyers who mentored us in the beginning. There was another lawyer by the name of Brad Yamaguchi. He was certainly very important in the early stages. Also somebody who worked for the County of Santa Clara. He directed the Office of Human Relations. Jim McEntee I think he was a he was also a mentor and a shining example for me because he he was very involved with a lot of different community groups and organizations. And he he would make it a point to come to the Day of Remembrance programs every year. And he would make it a point to be involved with other not only the Asian Law alliance, but I know he was at other groups helping other groups and organizations and one time I, I saw this Vietnamese American guy and he said, Oh, you didn't know that. I know Mr. McEntee? You know, he was always very supportive of our organization. And so I would say Jim McEntee was was another person who was kind of a person I looked up to a lot.

(Interviewer) So what do you think are the key issues that you'd to see addressed in the community at the moment? And, you know, how should we best approach these issues?

Well, I'll pull out one that that is, given the current configuration of the Congress, it's not going to happen, but there really is a need for comprehensive immigration reform. I mean, the Immigration Reform and Control Act was 1986. That's a long, long time ago. And since that time, there have been a lot of people who can't get on a path to citizenship. Now, undocumented and and we mean there needs to be federal legislation. Again, given the current configuration of the Congress, it won't happen. But that's something that needs to happen sometime soon. I would say that's that's probably one of the most important issues that I think needs to be addressed. The whole issue of how do we deal with all the hate violence directed toward our communities, hate violence, hate speech. It's again, we're we're trying to engage in a lot of education work, doing bystander intervention trainings. That's important. Well, those are two are what I would call out at this point.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 1:04:16 >> end

There's a lot of different ways to be active. There are. There really are many different ways. And and you can be active in a way that is involving a lot of other organizations, or you can be active in in a more individual way, however you feel comfortable or whatever works for you. I mean, given now all the different social tools, there are some people who are very adept at activating through, again, the various platforms without calling them all out around a particular issue. I think that's important to do. It's something I don't have the skills set, but others I know do. And so that's to do is to be engaged and active in that way. I mean, again, the simple way would be to identify an issue and find a group that's involved with that issue. And if it aligns with your values, then just jump in and get involved, volunteer, see what you can do, whether it be, you know, letters, writing, emails, sending text messages. Again, those are all different ways to be active and to make a difference.

So I think one of the things that was most disturbing is after the Atlanta Spa murders and there was some indication by the law enforcement over there that it wasn’t a hate crime, which is just it's mind boggling that that could even be said. And I know that locally a group of us began meeting and just trying to be supportive to each other because it was… I think it's traumatic only for community. But those of us who work in the community and sometimes we just needed a space to just talk and share and, and just talk through what what can we do? What should we do? It's it's again, not an easy issue to tackle. I mean, we're trying to do education work and again, some some of those bystander intervention trainings. I don't have the answer to it. I think I'm hoping that the next generation of people can can figure it out. I don't know that my generation has, but I'm hopeful. Only to say that I think, you know, to be active in the community. I think the most rewarding and essential way to do that is, again, find an organization that aligns with your values, get involved, volunteer. And I think you can make a difference that way.