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

Clifford Uyeda

(1917 - 2004) Political activist

Inouye’s strategy for educating the American public

I remember Senator Inouye would put his arm around Matsunaga’s shoulder and said, you know, if we introduce this thing now, I don’t think Bob [Matsui] is going to be here next time. He said I could introduce this bill into Congress next week if you want me to, but I could also tell you one other thing, it would never pass. And he said, how many congressmen really know about the Japanese American incarceration experience? He said, very few. And most of the congressmen are very young now, and they were not around during the Second World War. He thought that what we need to do more than anything else is to educate the American public and to educate the American public, he said, one of the most effective ways would be to hold—have a presidential commission forum, that would go around the country and have at least a minimum of ten hearings. He said, this would generate a tremendous amount of publicity, and also would inform the public, and this is what we need to do.

Daniel K. Inouye governments politics Redress movement U.S. Senate

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)