Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: William Hohri Interview
Narrator: William Hohri
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda (primary); Gary Kawaguchi (secondary)
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: September 12, 1997
Densho ID: denshovh-hwilliam-01-0010

WH: I think that from my own perspective from what happened in the movement is, after a point, the media does catch up with you, and you do do a lot of media things that have absolutely, there's no planning, no organization and it's probably fairly wide-reaching. I think a lot of people don't understand the impact of talk radio, for example. I did talk radio all over the country. ... And one of the things I found out was that it took its toll on me, so I'd limit myself to one a day. If I did two a day I would just be so worn out. It's the adrenaline, because a lot of hostility you deal with. But I think that's part of what you have to do. I mean, I hadn't heard anyone else talk about that, so I'm just sort of wondering how much talk radio other people did, but I did quite a bit. And you really get down to the common man, and it's not real enlightening. But it's important because you know what people think and they respond to you. It's not hard to figure out. And some of the people, well, like there was a guy in New York who was just absolutely terrible, he was very hostile, racist. I guess in New York you can be openly racist, it was just, it was amazing to me. But I was prepared for it. But I think I did two interviews and after the second one, I called up the producer and said, "I never want to do an interview with this guy again because he's not fair." I don't mind people who are conservative, but I want equal time. I don't want him dominating everything and just, you know, making me look like a fool. I want equal time, and most of the people will give you equal time, even if they don't agree with you.

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