Entrevistas

1. Early Childhood

2. Camp as a Young Boy

3. “Something ominous in the background…”

4. On Joining the Marine Corps

5. Racial Antagonism in the Marine Corps

6. “I was never an exceptional student…”

7. Being 1 out of 4 Asians at Harvard Law School

8. Asian American Lawyers as Victims of “Overt Racial Discrimination”

9. “I could never get a job offer from a private law firm”

10. Being Denied as a Japanese American Lawyer

11. “The Best Seat in the Courthouse”

12. The First Japanese American on the U.S. Court of Appeals

13. On the Increase in Asian American Representation

14. The Intersection between Internment and Judgeship

15. Leaving a Legacy

Tashima,A. Wallace

(n. 1934) El primer japonés-estadounidense nombrado para el Tribunal de Apelaciones de los Estados Unidos.

Being Denied as a Japanese American Lawyer

But I remember when I was at the law firm, a new matter came in from a client- a client had a long relationship with another lawyer in the firm, a real terrific lawyer, a fellow named John Austin. And John asked me, “Listen I want you…would you take this matter for me? I think you can do it” and all this kind of stuff, and I said “Sure.”

So I met with the client, and then, on the way out, the client stopped to see John Austin, and John came to see me and told me that the client didn’t want me to be his lawyer, and I couldn’t figure out why. He never did say, but since he had just met him, I think it had to be because I was Japanese. And John said to his credit, “Well, that’s who we are gonna have to do this case so if you don’t want him then we can’t take the matter.” So John Austin refused it much to his credit.

But anyway, things like that would happen during that era, that period. Something like that would happen much less today, I think.

discriminación relaciones interpersonales John Austin derecho bufetes de abogados abogados (lawyers) discriminación racial

Fecha: July 2, 2014

Zona: California, US

Entrevista: Sakura Kato

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

Entrevista

Nacido en Santa María, California, el juez Atsushi Wallace Tashima es el primer japonés-estadounidense y el tercer asiático-estadounidense en la historia en integrar un Tribunal de Apelaciones de los Estados Unidos. Sus padres eran inmigrantes issei. Pasó tres años de su infancia en el Centro de Reubicación de Guerra de Poston en Poston, Arizona. Cuando Tashima ingresó a su primer año en la Escuela de Derecho de la Universidad de Harvard en 1958, él era uno de los únicos cuatro estudiantes asiático-estadounidenses en Harvard. Sin embargo, Tashima llegó a tener una carrera como juez federal durante 34 años. En 1980, Tashima fue nombrado por el presidente Carter para el Tribunal de Distrito de los Estados Unidos para el Distrito Central de California. Después de 15 años de servicio en el Tribunal de Distrito, el presidente Clinton ascendió a Tashima al Tribunal de Apelaciones de los Estados Unidos del Noveno Circuito, cuya jurisdicción abarca los nueve estados occidentales en la Costa Oeste. En el 2004, Tashima asumió el estatus de juez decano y actualmente integra el Tribunal del Noveno Circuito en Pasadena, California. (Agosto de 2014)