There was a fellow by the name of Grant...
I*: Ujifusa.
Ujifusa, and Grant was an editor with the Reader's Digest. And we were talking about this, and I said, "You know, Grant, we're not over the hill yet on this thing." And he said, "Well, you know, Governor Tom Kean of New Jersey is going to be with President Reagan, and he's going to be in the car with him for about an hour. Suppose we brief Governor Kean about this bill and have him talk to President Reagan about it, and not veto the bill?" So I said that would be great, so we pulled all that material together, and Grant went to see Governor Kean and convinced him that in this conversation when he's in the President's car, that he should talk to President Reagan about it, so we did that.
Also, remember, when President Reagan was Captain Reagan, he was there when, when, was it Sergeant Masuda, couldn't be buried in his own hometown cemetery. And so Captain Reagan was at the burial of captain, I mean, of Sergeant Masuda even though it wasn't in his hometown grave. Wherever he got buried, Captain Reagan was there. So we had someone else remind the President of that occurrence. And in fact, I think there's a picture of him at that cemetery, or at the funeral service, and they even gave him a picture of that to remind him. But it was really Governor Kean who talked to President Reagan about why he shouldn't veto this bill.
* "I" indicates an interviewer (Tom Ikeda).
Date: July 4, 2008
Location: Colorado, US
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
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