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

Rose Ochi

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

Message to Aspiring Japanese American Lawyers

I don't think people need to be inspired. I think there are plenty of people that seek a legal education. It's how you use that education and I would just encourage them beyond making money. I think that's important and becoming successful. You need to, as an organization or as an individual, find ways to support individuals in the community. I think the approach that I mentioned earlier about, you know, working with the Mexican Bar, the Black Bar, the Chinese Bar, you know it's - in everyone's family, we're all Chop Suey, you know. We have part Mexican, part... you name it, you know. And so, just as a family or as a community we have to be able to create all these alliances. One of the things I'm very proud about the Manzanar committee, we've been one of the first out there supporting the Muslim community, they all, representatives attend our pilgrimages and that we've reached out to them and that, that whatever happened to us would not happen to others.

California communities concentration camps Manzanar concentration camp United States World War II camps

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.