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

A. Wallace Tashima

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

“Something ominous in the background…”

On the other hand, it was something, you know, ominous in the background all the time. After a while, I remember the older boys were getting drafted. They were going off to military service, going off to training. And then after a while someone would come back and they would be wounded, walking on crutches and stuff. So you knew something…you know they would never talk about it but you know what was going on…

What didn’t make sense was... and what seemed kind of odd, because you know these people, like myself, the older boys were put into camp and then when they turned 18 they were drafted into the army. And well, if they are gonna go into the army, even then I said to myself, “Why do they have to be kept in camps?” It didn’t make a lot of sense, but anyways, like a nine year old, I didn’t question it too much.

442nd Regimental Combat Team Arizona concentration camps Poston concentration camp United States United States Army World War II camps

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.