Interviews

1. Where did the Name Gidra Originate

2. Struggle and Activism

3. Gidra's Editorial Process

4. Gidra - Community Newspaper

5. Gidra Collaborations

6. Common Cause

7. Gidra's Contributors

8. Gidra's Content

9. Content Conflict

10. Camp Experiences

11. Cincip

12. Staff and Struggles

Mike Murase

Community activist

Staff and Struggles

There was a core of us, that you know, kept it going. But there was a free flow of people who came in and went, and contributed for a month or two and left. We had summer youth workers that worked only in the summertime. But you know all of that I think, really made for that, that eclectic but also vibrant, you know like a whole kind of a experience. And so beyond what’s in the paper, for us, I think the people, and you know I said earlier, we’re all still friends, that camaraderie. I mean, if you stay up until 4 or 5 in the morning every night, and yell at each other, scream at each other, struggle with each other, and produce something, I mean, you know, I think it’s, that’s how you really bond through struggle.

That’s why you see the 442nd you know, still reuniting because they went through a common experience of struggle. You know, people in camps went through a common experience of struggle. I mean, ours, we can’t equate with those two but you know, we in our own ways, bonded through the process of hammering our differences and wanting to contribute to a larger movement you know so.

identity newspapers

Date: Sep 29, 2011

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Kris Kuromitsu, John Esaki

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

Interviewee Bio

Mike Murase--attorney, activist, administrator, writer and photographer--has been involved in human services, social change, education, government and politics for over 40 years. As an undergraduate at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), he was a co-founder of the Asian American Studies Center and later taught ethnic studies at UCLA, University of Southern California and California State University at Long Beach.

Mike’s roots in the Asian American communities are deep. He was a part of the core group who founded Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC), a social service and community economic development agency serving Little Tokyo and greater Japanese American community throughout Los Angeles. Mike served as the board president for first 5 years. He also advocated for members of Japanese Welfare Rights Organization, Little Tokyo People’s Rights Organization and National Coalition for Redress & Reparations (NCRR), and authored Little Tokyo: One Hundred Year History.

In 2006, Mike returned to LTSC to join its management team and currently is Director of Service Programs. (August 2012)

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