Interviews

1. Early Childhood

2. Camp as a Young Boy

3. “Something ominous in the background…”

4. On Joining the Marine Corps

5. Racial Antagonism in the Marine Corps

6. “I was never an exceptional student…”

7. Being 1 out of 4 Asians at Harvard Law School

8. Asian American Lawyers as Victims of “Overt Racial Discrimination”

9. “I could never get a job offer from a private law firm”

10. Being Denied as a Japanese American Lawyer

11. “The Best Seat in the Courthouse”

12. The First Japanese American on the U.S. Court of Appeals

13. On the Increase in Asian American Representation

14. The Intersection between Internment and Judgeship

15. Leaving a Legacy

Tashima,A. Wallace

(b. 1934) The First Japanese American Appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Being Denied as a Japanese American Lawyer

But I remember when I was at the law firm, a new matter came in from a client- a client had a long relationship with another lawyer in the firm, a real terrific lawyer, a fellow named John Austin. And John asked me, “Listen I want you…would you take this matter for me? I think you can do it” and all this kind of stuff, and I said “Sure.”

So I met with the client, and then, on the way out, the client stopped to see John Austin, and John came to see me and told me that the client didn’t want me to be his lawyer, and I couldn’t figure out why. He never did say, but since he had just met him, I think it had to be because I was Japanese. And John said to his credit, “Well, that’s who we are gonna have to do this case so if you don’t want him then we can’t take the matter.” So John Austin refused it much to his credit.

But anyway, things like that would happen during that era, that period. Something like that would happen much less today, I think.

discrimination interpersonal relations John Austin law law firms lawyers racial descrimination

Date: July 2, 2014

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Sakura Kato

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum; Japanese American Bar Association

Interviewee Bio

Born in Santa Maria California, Judge Atsushi Wallace Tashima is the first Japanese American and the third Asian American in history to serve on a U.S. Court of Appeals. He was born to Issei immigrants and spent three years of his childhood in the Poston War Relocation Center in Poston, Arizona. When Tashima entered his first year of Harvard Law School in 1958, he was one of only 4 Asian American students at Harvard. Nevertheless, Tashima went on to lead a 34 year-long career as a federal judge. In 1980, Tashima was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by President Carter. After serving 15 years on the U.S. District Court, President Clinton elevated Tashima to the U.S Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers the nine western states on the West Coast. As as 2004, Tashima assumed senior status and currently sits in the Ninth Circuit Pasadena Couthouse in Pasadena, CA. (August 2014)

*This is one of the main projects completed by The Nikkei Community Internship (NCI) Program intern each summer, which the Japanese American Bar Association and the Japanese American National Museum have co-hosted.