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“The Best Seat in the Courthouse”

When I was a first year law student, there was a very famous case that was being trialed in the U.S. District Court in Boston- the old Scollay Square Court House. And a group of us decided to go watch the trial, so we took a few days off and took the subway over to Scollay Square and sat in the trial. It only lasted 3 to 4 days. In those days, trials were shorter, but it was a libel case where the Senator from Maine, Owen Brewster, sued the Boston Herald Traveler for libel because they had accused him of taking a bribe or something like that.

So the case trialed to the jury and there was a famous lawyer that defended- they were all big time lawyers- but a famous lawyer defended the Boston Traveler- a fellow named James St. Clair because he later became…what 15 years later… 20 years later… 72… 10 years later... he later became President Nixon’s impeachment lawyer.

Anyway, we went to watch that trial, and it was evident to me that the best seat in the court house was the one right up there where the judge was sitting- little guy named Charles Wyzanski, very good judge, had a stellar reputation. And the judge was asking…there was no doubt that he controlled that courtroom, he controlled that trial, he moved it along. He was very impressive. So I said to myself, I thought, “Boy, that’s the job I want.”

So, I was in law school, I was a first year student, and I said that and I thought that, but you know, dwell on that… But anyway, that’s the first time I decided, “Boy, it would be nice to be a federal judge.” 


Boston Charles Wyzanski James D. St. Clair law Massachusetts Scollay Square United States United States District Court

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.

Sabrina Shizue McKenna
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Sabrina Shizue McKenna

Initial Interest in Law

(b. 1957) Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii.

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