Interviews

1. Incarceration, Deportation, and Lawyers

2. On Challenging Institutions

3. Proud to be Japanese Americans

4. The White House Will Have to Wait

5. Nikkei Pioneers in the Legal Field

6. “…Put Me In A Cage”

7. Preserving Manzanar-Chutzpah and the DWP

8. Rising Up To A Challenge

9. Congressional Hearings

10. “A Low Tolerance For Injustice…”

11. Pop and Balls

12. Fifty Years and Going Strong

13. Message to Aspiring Japanese American Lawyers

Ochi,Rose

(1938-2020) Japanese American attorney and civil rights activist

“…Put Me In A Cage”

I actually got a call from the governor’s office offering me a judgeship. I never had applied, didn’t wanted one…So I got a call saying, “we’ll appoint you to the bench.” And I went to lunch with a friend of mine. His name is Albert De Blanc, [Jr.], chair of one of the youth programs we developed in the mayor’s office. He’s the president of the black bar. I said, “What do you think? Here I get this call from Jerry’s office.” He said, “Rose, being a judge would…” And I answered, “…put me in a cage.” I said, “I would like the community esteem.

I would like to be a role model, and I would like all that.” But I said, “I have a lot of work to do.” I did the East LA incorporation. I had been an attorney for Serrano v. Priest. I had been a school teacher before, so I understand the issues of inequality of educational opportunities and here I’m doing the lawsuit about incorporation and political empowerment. I’m having a ball, not making much money, 10,000 for a Reggie¹. But I was getting a lot of personal satisfaction because a lot of this was dealing with my personal history. So I turned him down and I worked on first establishing Manzanar as a National Historic Landmark.

1. Reginald Heber Smith Fellowships were awarded to young law graduates who chose to work in poverty law. They were called “Reggies.”

Date: July 17, 2013

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Sean Hamamoto

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

Interviewee Bio

Rose Matsui Ochi was born in East Los Angeles, California on December 15, 1938. Following the outbreak of World War II, young Ms. Ochi’s family was rounded up to live in the horse stables of the Santa Anita racetracks before being railroaded to Rohwer, one of America’s concentration camps for Japanese Americans at the time. Upon release, her parents were subjected to deportation, but were rescued by civil rights lawyers. Her family’s tragic experience taught her about injustices and about the power to right wrongs.

In order to fight for rights and social justice, Ms. Ochi decided to go into law. After earning a B.A. from University of California, Los Angeles and M.S. from California State University, Los Angeles, she earned a J.D. from Loyola Law School. She began her career as a ‘Reggie’, a poverty lawyer, at U.S.C. Western Center on Law and Poverty and served as the co-counsel of record in Serrano v. Priest, the landmark educational law reform case. Ms. Ochi has since served on the state bar and Legal Services Commission, has worked as a Disciplinary Referee, and was the first AA Board of Trustees member for the LA County Bar Association.

Recently, she helped to rescue Tuna Canyon WWII Detention Camp by getting Council approval for Historic Designation. She passed away in December 2020. (December 2020)

*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.