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Receiving support from Sonia Sotomayer to run for the bench

We were at a meeting for women of color at the law school at Berkeley and she was- she started off by saying, you already know enough about me I don’t need to tell you about myself, I want to you know about you and your stories and she went down the line on all thirty of the women who had been hand-picked to attend and asked “Why did you want to be a lawyer?” “Why are you here?” And the stories were themselves incredible, just inspirational and I was the last person in line, and she said -- we'd talked before about having a picture taken, and she said come on down and have your picture taken. And I came down and we were standing there and someone was taking our picture and I said to her … you know, you’ve really inspired me and I’m finally going to apply to the bench. And she grabs my hand and thrusts it in the air and says “Holly is gonna apply to the bench.” and I thought, now I have to do it. And that was the real push. At that point when Sonia Sotomayor says you should apply, by gosh you have to apply and I applied, and I got appointed.


judges law Sonia Sotomayor women

Date: July 11, 2019

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Kayla Tanaka

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

Interviewee Bio

Judge Holly J. Fujie is a Sansei judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California since 2012. She grew up in West Oakland, California in a diverse neighborhood. Both of her parents were incarcerated as children during World War II, but did not share their experiences with her until she was an adult. This affected her view on laws and government and led her to pursue a career as an attorney and later as a judge.

As a lawyer, she became involved with various minority bar association, including the Japanese American Bar Association, and mentorship programs. She became the first Asian American President of the State Bar of California in 2008. (July 2019)

*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.

Fumiko Hachiya Wasserman
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Fumiko Hachiya Wasserman

How she transitioned from anthropology to law

Sansei judge for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California

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Mia Yamamoto
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Mia Yamamoto

Cofounding the Asian Pacific Islander Law Student Association

(b. 1943) Japanese American transgender attorney

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Sabrina Shizue McKenna
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Sabrina Shizue McKenna

Confidence as a young Asian American woman

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

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