CU: So I accepted the position of a redress chair in 1977. And then the first thing I did was to send out questionnaires to find out, do the Niseis really want redress? And however, I did mention in my, a questionnaire that I sent, that, "Give me your real frank opinion: should we go for redress or should we not?" I said, "I will not use your name, so don't be afraid to write whatever you, that comes to your mind. I would only use your age and your sex, that's all."

[Interruption]

CU: The answers I got was a complete surprise to me because so many of so-called leaders of the Japanese American community were not for redress, they were against it. And their reasoning was exactly what Hayakawa was to say later: that, "It is a shame to be asking for handouts from the government, that we should let the bygones be bygones, and we're doing pretty well now. We don't want to stir up any more animosity toward the Japanese Americans." So they said, "Forget about it." That was the... and it was, as I said, it came as such a surprise to me, and I felt that before we could really go for redress, first of all, we have to educate the Niseis more than, you can't expect the Americans to understand us if the Nisei really felt that way.

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