Interviews

1. Japanese Language School

2. Mentality of Issei and Nisei

3. Treatment by Chinese students

4. Attempts to sign up for military service

5. Recruited for the National JACL Redress Committee

6. Criteria for who gets redress

7. Changing "reparations" to "redress"

8. Appointing John Tateishi as National JACL Redress Chair

9. Inouye’s strategy for educating the American public

10. JACL reaction to the idea of a commission

11. Redress clash between Senators Inouye and Hayakawa

12. Recalling President Carter’s signing of the Commission bill

13. Poignant story from the CWRIC hearing in San Francisco

14. John Tateishi plays a role in changing people's minds

15. The unheralded help from beyond the community

16. Legacy of redress

17. Different races have to live together and interact

(1917 - 2004) Political activist

Treatment by Chinese students

I used to tell my friends that, you know, the Chinese people treat me better than the white people did on the West Coast. (laughter) And here Japan was at war with China, but they were very understanding. They treated me—they accepted me more as an American than anyone else.

In fact, one time, I happened to be in Chicago—University of Chicago—and the Chinese students said [to me], you know there's a banquet—Chinese banquet going on by the Midwest Chinese Student Club. so why don’t you come along, so I said, I can’t go to a Chinese banquet. Especially you know with the war going on and all that. But they said, oh, don’t worry, he said, we’ll get you in. So I went with them, and this one person went to the registration area and registered me in, came back and said, your name is Richard Wang, tonight.

communities community organizations discrimination identity interpersonal relations organizations racism

Date: July 1-2, 1998

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Mitchell Maki, Darcie Iki

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

Interviewee Bio

Clifford Uyeda was born on January 14, 1917, into a family of oyster farmers in Olympia, Washington. Uyeda studied at the University of Wisconsin and from 1941 to 1945 attended Tulane University Medical School in New Orleans, LA. Uyeda went on to become a medical doctor in San Francisco, CA.

Uyeda became involved in the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) in 1960 when he served as San Francisco Chapter chair of the Issei Oral History Project. He helped in establishing the School of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University and played an important role in restoring the U.S. citizenship and presidential pardon of Iva Toguri, also known as “Tokyo Rose.”

After retiring from medicine in 1975, Uyeda became a full-time activist. In 1977, Uyeda served as National JACL chair of the Japanese American Incarceration for Redress committee. He was elected to serve as president of National JACL from 1978 to 1980. Uyeda continued to serve the community in various roles until his death from cancer in 2004 at the age of 87. (April 11, 2008)

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