Kimi Maru | Interview 2 | May 19, 2022

TEWES: This is a second interview with Kimi Maru for the Japanese American Intergenerational Narratives Oral History Project, in association with the Oral History Center at UC Berkeley. Ms. Maru joins me in this remote interview from Monterey Park, California, and I am in Walnut Creek, California. This interview is being conducted by Amanda Tewes on May 19, 2022. So thank you, Kimi, for joining for a second session. I appreciate it.

MARU: Thanks for having me.

TEWES: I want to start off this session by thinking about some travels that you've done to Japan, and I think you've mentioned two trips: one in 2010, and one in 2019. Can you tell me about those experiences?

MARU: Sure. In 2010, it was the first time we -- well, my first trip to Japan, but we went as a family. My son had 00:01:00just graduated from high school, and my daughter was sixteen at that time. My then-husband actually was born in Japan and came to this country when he was eight, so he is able to speak Japanese, which was a big help on the trip, since none of us -- my kids and myself -- don't really speak too much. But we went to Tokyo first, and then traveled to Osaka. No, I'm sorry. We went to Tokyo first, and then Hakone, and then Osaka. And from Osaka, we went to Kyoto and Kobe, and other places from there. We spent a total of about twelve days, and it was really a nice trip. The only thing was that it was right in 00:02:00early August, and it was like so hot and humid. [laughs]

The reason why we went at that time was because when my son graduated from high school, he wanted to go with his friends, which was a Boy Scout troop. They were having a jamboree in Japan, somewhere sort of near Mount Fuji, so he wanted to go with his friends, and so he did. So they left in like mid-July, and then what we did was after his jamboree was finished, we met up with him at a hotel in Tokyo, and then he joined us, and then we did our thing. So he was there when it was even hotter, but he said it was like kind of miserable where they were staying, because there were so 00:03:00many bugs, like not just mosquitoes, but this -- I don't even know what it's called, but it was some kind of fly that was biting. He said they all just got bit up and it was kind of miserable, but he had a good time anyway. Their little group, I don't know what you call it --

TEWES: Troop?

MARU: Troop. They had their own tent, and they were given rations of food each day, but they had to cook it themselves. And the funny thing is, is that Seiji, my son, was the only one among them who knew how to cook. So they were so grateful to him being on the trip, because he was the cook who made all their meals for them, so that was kind of funny. But in that process of staying with his friends and being at that jamboree, he actually picked up quite a 00:04:00bit of Japanese. And so when he hooked up with us later when we were traveling around, he was much more able to ask questions, order food, speak and converse with people much more comfortably than myself or my daughter. So that was, for him, it was really a good experience.

We had a great time. It was just like so different being in Japan, being in a country where you feel like you're the majority, right? Yeah, it was just a completely different type of feeling, like going on the trains and buses and bullet train and things, just being in a situation where everyone around you is Asian or Japanese [laughs] was just a big kind of 00:05:00culture shock. The other thing that I really noticed immediately in Tokyo was how clean the city is, like you rarely see any trash on the ground, or you don't see graffiti on buildings or in places. It was just like, yeah, a really, really clean city. That was kind of astounding, given how big it is and how many people there are and how crowded it is, to see the fact that people are very conscious of using trash cans and they're just -- yeah, it's just a very different culture, where people are conscious of making sure that they don't throw away trash or anything on the ground. And even things like smoking cigarettes, they have just stations where people are allowed to smoke. You're not allowed to just 00:06:00openly walk around smoking a cigarette. You have to go to these stations where they have these -- basically, it's like a vacuum cleaner that sucks up the smoke, so that it doesn't really pollute the air and bother people around you. When you walk by one of these stations on the sidewalk, you don't even smell the smoke, it's that thorough. Just little things like that were just kind of interesting. You notice them, because it was just so different than the United States. Of course, the food was amazing. And yeah, we just had a really good time.

TEWES: You've talked about looking around and seeing people who look like you everywhere, but did you ever feel like you stood out as a Japanese American in some way?

MARU: I did. We all did. Because I didn't realize that the 00:07:00way people dress, especially women my age, they dress more conservatively. I went there knowing it was going to be really hot, so I brought sleeveless tops and tank tops and shorts and things to stay cool. And so I noticed when we were on a train or something, I'd look around and all the women are wearing dresses -- short or long sleeves -- basically much more covered up, and no one dressed the way I was. And my daughter, too. She was wearing really short shorts, and none of the younger people -- even people her age didn't dress like that, so I think we really did stand out. People knew immediately that we weren't from there, that we were from the US, you know? So yeah, I did feel a little self-conscious about that, but it was okay.

TEWES: That's so 00:08:00interesting. And of all the cities you visited, were any of these connected to you ancestrally?

MARU: Not really, because on my father's side they were from Fukuoka, which is in Kyushu, and we didn't get down to Kyushu. And then on my mother's side, she was from Ibaraki-ken, which is outside of Tokyo, which we weren't able to visit. And then my husband's family was from Yokohama, and we also didn't get over there, so we didn't actually visit any places that had anything to do with our family. We did meet up with one of his relatives in Japan and just had lunch or something with them, but that was about it.

TEWES: Oh, that's nice. And then you went back like nine years 00:09:00later. What had changed? What was different about this trip?

MARU: Well, for one thing, I just went with three other women friends of mine, so it was just four of us traveling together, and it was just completely for fun. We went in April, so we were able to catch the cherry blossoms, which was just amazing. There's no comparison to seeing that kind of beauty anywhere else. It was just really amazing. In Tokyo, there was so much construction going on, because they were building for the Olympics, which you know, got postponed a year because of the pandemic and stuff, but there was just lots of construction. At the time when we went, because it was cherry blossom time, it was really 00:10:00crowded. People were coming there from all over to visit. And so yeah, everywhere we went it was really, really crowded. Especially in Kyoto, it was very, very packed with tourists. But we went to Tokyo. I was able to go, with one of the women I was traveling with, to Kawagoe, which is, I think, an hour-and-a-half or two hours outside of Tokyo, but it's a small town. They've preserved a lot of the buildings the way they were like, you know, yes, hundreds of years ago. It looks really, really old. It looks like what you see in samurai movies, like old villages kind of thing. It's really beautiful.

We went to a 00:11:00flea market that they had at a temple there, because I wanted to try to find fabric, and in particular old yukata that I could buy and take apart and use for the sewing that I do. We went to this flea market. They had lots of old yukata that they were selling; these were used, but they were still in great shape. And so I was able to buy quite a bit of fabric there, and that was really special. And I still have some of it today that I'm still using, so that was really nice. And then of course, we went to the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, which was nice, because that's really spectacular, as far as the cherry blossoms -- and yeah, people just come from all over just to see that. Afterwards, we went to 00:12:00this district in Tokyo called Nippori Fabric Town, so I was able to do some shopping real quick, because the stores were closing, and I only had maybe half an hour before they closed. But I was able to buy a bunch of fabric. Yeah. Kyoto was probably the best for me in shopping for fabric. They had really nice textiles there. Part of my trip, what I wanted to do, was to buy a lot of fabric to bring back, so I was able to do that. Actually, I want to go back to buy some more. [laughs] It was really nice.

TEWES: That's so interesting. Is Kyoto known for its fabric creation?

MARU: Yeah, it's known for its textiles. Yeah, they had a big selection. It was 00:13:00really nice. I only went to a few stores, but still I was able to find a lot.

And then one of the other areas we went to was up [in] northern Japan, it was Akita Prefecture. Up there it was snowing, I mean, really snowing! I had never been in that kind of snow before. We took a train up there, and it was just beautiful. It was cold, but we brought warm clothes. We had down coats and things like that, so it wasn't that bad. But we stayed at a bed and breakfast place, and then the owner took us on sort of a tour of the area. We went to an outdoor onsen and 00:14:00soaked in the hot tub while it was snowing outside. [laughs] It was like really amazing, it was just beautiful. Even though it was only like 32 degrees outside, you didn't feel cold, because you're sitting in hot mineral water, and so it was really -- that was quite an experience. It was really nice.

TEWES: Yeah, and it sounds like you had a wide variety of experiences across these two trips.

MARU: Yeah, and then the last city we went to was Hiroshima, because I had not been there before. We didn't make it there on my first trip, so I wanted to go see the atomic bomb museum there, so we went and saw the monuments and visited the museum and stuff. That was just really pretty heart-wrenching, 00:15:00hard to look at a lot of those exhibits. You had to do it, just to learn, but to see the kind of devastation and stuff was just pretty hard to take. In fact, one of the women I was with had to just kind of sit down. She was the one that was from Japan, but it was just really hard for her to look at the exhibit, because it was just too much.

TEWES: What did that bring up for you?

MARU: Well, when you see the kind of devastation and what it did to the people there, it makes you realize how 00:16:00much we have to make sure that something like that never happens again. It's pretty scary times now, because like when Trump was president, he was talking about dropping a bomb on -- I can't even remember what countries. It was nothing to him. Yeah, let's just bomb this country if we don't agree with them or don't like what they're doing. For someone in that kind of position to be that careless, and not realize what you're saying and what kind of devastation and how much loss of life that there is from those kind of, you know, weapons, it's 00:17:00just -- I mean, it's just so irresponsible and so unbelievable that someone in that kind of position can take life so callously, as if the people living in these countries have no -- like their life is not worth anything.

So when you see the kind of damage that was done in Hiroshima, it just makes you realize that those kind of weapons have no business even being in existence, because all it means is like pretty much the end of the world. If there's going to be a nuclear war, there's no way that people will survive 00:18:00it. So it's a very scary thing when you see that kind of devastation, and the fact that Japan was able to rebuild itself after that. I think everyone really needs to visit that museum and see what happened, because you don't really -- you can read about it and hear stories, but until you actually see pictures of what happened, it really doesn't hit you the way it needs to, so that people really understand how important it is that we not have nuclear weapons or continue to build these kind of things, that all they mean are the loss of life and the end of 00:19:00humanity really.

TEWES: Thank you for sharing that experience. I also today want to start thinking about your family's experience during World War II around incarceration. I thought maybe we'd start with your father's [side]. So can you tell me a little bit about your paternal grandparents and what they were doing around the time of World War II?

MARU: Okay. My grandfather was a gardener, and my grandmother was a housekeeper. And most of their customers lived in either Montclair, which is sort of in the hills of Oakland, or Piedmont, which is where I grew up. And so most of the families they 00:20:00worked for were pretty wealthy. So that's what they were doing at the time when the war came about. My father had just started at UC Berkeley. His brother, my uncle, I think was just going to start college, as well, or maybe he was in high school. I don't remember exactly how old he was. But when the evacuation orders came about, my grandparents had friends who lived in Fresno, California, and heard from them -- there were all kinds of rumors going on at that time, because people didn't know what was happening. So they were told by their friends, "If you come down to stay with us in Fresno, you'll 00:21:00avoid getting evacuated." So my grandparents immediately started packing up the house, figuring out what they were going to take with them, hiding things in their attic and in the basement, because they knew that the house was going to be vacant for a while. They didn't know when they would get back and stuff, so they took my father and my uncle, and went down to Fresno and stayed with these friends -- and then got evacuated from there anyway. [laughs] So that's why they ended up in Gila River, instead of going to Tanforan and then Topaz, which is where they would have been if they had stayed in Berkeley.

So you know, my father never really talked too much about his experience in camp. I know that he was very bitter about it. He felt that 00:22:00if people -- the men were going to volunteer to join the Army, that they shouldn't -- if they're going to do that and fight for the United States, then the United States needs to let their families out of camp. He just felt it was so much of a contradiction to be asking people to risk their lives and fight for a country that's putting the very same people behind barbed wire. So anyways, that was his kind of position on the thing. He actually did try to join the service, but he was turned away, because he had really bad asthma, so they wouldn't take him. But my uncle was a medic, so he did join. My father, while he was in camp at 00:23:00Gila, the Quakers were helping some of the Niseis to leave camp early to go to college. So because my father was college age and was in college at the time when the camps happened, they were able to get him out early. And then he was moved to Chicago, and he went to school in Chicago. I don't know which college he went to, but he went to architectural school, and I believe graduated in Chicago before moving back to Berkeley.

I don't really know a lot of the details. I'm assuming that after the camps closed, my grandparents went back to Berkeley to live in the house that they formerly lived in, but I don't know the 00:24:00timing or any -- I never really heard much detail about that. I do know that a lot of the belongings that they had hidden in the basement of the house were all gone, everything was taken. But my grandmother had a shamisen that she had hidden up in the attic of the house. We didn't even know anything about this until my brother, who was living in the house -- this is after, long after my grandparents had passed away -- he had to fix the roof of the house, and he came across the shamisen. It was in a case, and the case was kind of beat up, because it had gotten damaged from rain and weather, but the shamisen inside was perfectly intact. We were all pretty excited when we found this, and I said I wanted it. But now we can't find it. I don't know what 00:25:00happened to it. [laughs] It was over at my mother's house, and basically it has disappeared. I don't know what happened to it, but I'm hoping that when we eventually clean out my parents' house, that we'll find it. But as of right now, I don't know where it is. Yeah.

TEWES: Oh my gosh. And what is a shamisen?

MARU: It's a Japanese stringed instrument that has, I believe, three strings, and it has a long, thin neck and kind of a squarish body, where you use a bachi [or plectrum], a triangular shaped pick used to strum or pick the strings. If you watch any old Japanese movies, you will see that or hear the music from a shamisen. People still play it today, 00:26:00but it's just one of the old traditional instruments, kind of like a koto is, but a koto is a much larger instrument that's horizontal.

TEWES: Did anyone play that in your family?

MARU: Well, I'm assuming my grandmother must have, since she had one, but I never heard her, because none of us even knew that this existed, so I never saw or heard her play. But yeah, I think she must have, because this -- yeah, she treasured it, she hid it and it actually survived all those years when they were gone.

TEWES: Wow. That is very special. I hope you find it! [laughs]

MARU: Oh, I hope so, too.

TEWES: A few follow-up questions about your father's experiences. Did he ever talk about what it was like in 00:27:00Berkeley, or even at the campus of Berkeley right after Pearl Harbor?

MARU: No. My father actually really didn't talk to us about any of this. My mother was really the only one who talked about camp. My dad, I guess it was just too hard for him, but he never really opened up about it, so I really have no stories at all from him, unfortunately.

TEWES: How have you found out what little you know about his experience?

MARU: I think mainly through my mother. I don't think I actually got that information from him, so yeah.

TEWES: I want to talk about 00:28:00silences in a minute, but let's move on to your mother's experiences here. How old was she around the time of World War II beginning?

MARU: I think she was around sixteen. So when they went to camp, first they went to Tanforan and then to Topaz. She graduated high school in camp, along with her sisters. My grandmother was a single mother of three daughters. Her husband passed away when my mom was twelve, so she had to go to camp with her three daughters by herself, which I'm sure was pretty difficult. My Aunt Kay, who was, I think, fourteen or fifteen in 00:29:00camp, when she got there, there was an artist name Chiura Obata, and he was doing art classes for people in the camp. This is at Topaz. And so that was actually the beginnings of her artistic journey, was taking classes from Chiura Obata. He's a very famous artist. His son, Gyo Obata, was one of the architects and principals of HOK, which is a really huge architectural firm. Gyo Obata, I believe, died this year.

TEWES: Yeah. Lots of things I want to talk about with you just then. [laughs] But I'm really interested in the idea that your aunt, and maybe others in the camps, were able to come 00:30:00together and have this cultural experience and learn from a great artist, which, what has she told you about that over the years?

MARU: Well, I mean, she has a lot of her drawings and paintings that she did from camp during that time. A lot of it was watercolor, and then I think she has some charcoal drawings and things that she did while she was learning from him. But I think he was the one that sparked her interest in doing artwork. And so after camp was when she was able to save some money to go to CCAC, the California College of Arts and Crafts, and then she got interested in weaving and getting into textile arts. Her 00:31:00artistic beginnings, I think, actually started when she took classes from him in camp.

Although, you know, I think before that she did do those drawings and paper dolls, which [laughs] she also has a whole collection of. It's been on exhibit in some of her exhibits that she's done, which are pretty amazing. These are like these little paper dolls that she made, and then she would design the clothing. These were like real stylish looking dresses and outfits, during the thirties and forties, so a lot of it was like really -- well, I guess what would now be considered vintage, but really very, very stylish for that time. And she was, yeah, really 00:32:00into designing different clothes and things. And I'm sure my mother did that, too, because my mother was very into designing clothes, as well, and actually making clothes and stuff.

TEWES: Do you know if your mother took lessons with Obata?

MARU: I don't think so, not that I ever heard of. Yeah, not that I'm aware of. I think my mom, because she was in high school at that time, she was probably into boys and having fun. [laughs] Because my mother was very outgoing and really -- she liked to party, and she was very social.

TEWES: That's too funny. Well, you've mentioned your grandmother was a 00:33:00single mom. How was she providing for the family?

MARU: She was also a domestic, you know, a housekeeper. And my mother had to actually start working when she was twelve to help make ends meet for the family. Yeah, she worked from a very young age. She had to do what's called schoolgirl, where when they were living in -- I guess Berkeley, after school they would go to certain people's houses and clean or cook and do things, and they called it schoolgirl. I think both my mother and my aunt, they had to do that to help contribute to the family, to make ends meet.

TEWES: What jobs were they working at Topaz, if any?

MARU: 00:34:00I'm not sure what my grandmother did. I would assume she probably worked in the kitchen or something like that, but I'm not really sure what my mom and aunts did, because they were younger. You know, they were teenagers. I'm not sure what kind of jobs they had for them. They didn't really talk about that.

TEWES: And you mentioned, the family was at Tanforan briefly. What do you know about their time there?

MARU: It was terrible. They were living in a horse stall. And yeah, my mother, all she said was how awful it was, the smell of horse manure, of waking up to that every day. It was pretty filthy. And yeah, she had nothing good to say about 00:35:00that experience at all. And even in camp, I know that they had dances and things like that for the younger people, but as far as food went, she really said the food was terrible. She remembers getting food that had maggots in it. She said that they used to be served Spam a lot, which is why she really didn't like it. You know, we never really grew up eating Spam much at all, because it reminded her of camp, and so she never wanted to eat it. I know a lot of people eat it now, and they make Spam musubi and other things, which I did, too, for my kids. But in my family, it had a certain memory that was really not good, and so we didn't eat it much in our family.

TEWES: That's really interesting. 00:36:00Well, you mentioned your father's family tried to pack up the house and hide items before they left. What kind of preparations was your mother's family able to do before leaving?

MARU: You know, I'm not really sure. I didn't really hear about that. I mean, I would imagine most families did the same, because you could only take with you what you could carry in your hands, so like, you know, it's basically two suitcases. And people tried to sell things that they could, like if they had a car or something, they would try to sell it. But I know that they just got pennies on the dollar for their belongings that they sold. Yeah, so I'm sure they lost a lot, just like everyone else. I don't think they owned a home at that time. They must have been renting. But yeah, I didn't hear about where they tried to 00:37:00store things or anything.

TEWES: And you mentioned yesterday that your mother ended up in Cincinnati after the war. How did she end up there?

MARU: Well, I think when the camps closed, they relocated people to different cities in the Midwest, so people were sent to Cincinnati, to Cleveland, to various places out in that area. I don't think they really had too much choice, so that's where they were sent. They lived there for about a year before they returned to Berkeley. And so during that year, my mom was working as a domestic, and I believe my aunts were doing the same -- and my grandmother, too -- so they could save enough money to get back to Berkeley.

TEWES: And it was always the goal to return to Berkeley?

MARU: 00:38:00Yeah, because that's where they grew up. That was their community and that's where they felt comfortable. I think in Cincinnati, it was really -- I mean, there weren't very many Japanese out there, and I think the racism after the war was pretty intense, so I don't think it was somewhere they wanted to settle, so they wanted to go back to where they felt more comfortable, or at least familiar with.

TEWES: So you mentioned that your father did not necessarily tell you stories about this time. When did you start hearing from your mother about her experiences during World War II?

MARU: It wasn't until I started working in the redress movement, and that was really the beginnings of 00:39:00when I asked questions and she started to open up about it. But before that, I don't recall too many conversations with my parents -- or anyone in my family, for that matter -- about the camps. I mean, maybe my brothers asked, but I don't remember anything before the redress movement.

TEWES: How do you think about their silence on this issue?

MARU: I think it was a very difficult thing that they went through, very painful, and probably a part of their life where they really didn't want to remember it. And there's a lot of probably bad experiences and things that was not -- didn't bring back 00:40:00good memories, so I think a lot of people suppress those things or don't want to talk about it. And I think that was true for a lot of Niseis. They never talk to their kids about what happened. Many finally opened up when the redress movement got started, and we heard more stories about what had happened. Then people did start opening up. But I don't think it was a conversation that many Niseis had with their kids. In fact, I don't really know too many people whose parents talked about that at all.

TEWES: So if I'm understanding this correctly, you learned more about incarceration first through your studies, and then had your parents' personal experience added on to that. What 00:41:00did it mean to you to have that family connection to this history?

MARU: You know, it was important to learn about my family's history, not just my family, but what Japanese Americans went through. I think it kind of explains a lot as to why people felt like they had to prove themselves. This whole thing about the model minority myth I think comes from the fact that people went through this camp experience and felt like afterwards they had to prove their Americanness and that they're patriotic, they're good citizens, all this kind of thing. So studying hard in school, trying to become some kind of 00:42:00professional or whatever, was something that I think Japanese felt more pressure to do, because of the fact that so many people felt they -- didn't feel that Japanese were fully American. Or the propaganda during the war was Japanese are spies, you can't trust them, all these really racist kind of things. In fact, there was not a single case of espionage or any of the things that Japanese were being accused of and put into camp for, none of that ever came to fruition. It wasn't true, it was all lies. But that kind of stigma stuck with a lot of people and the general population, and so people wanted to prove their loyalty to this 00:43:00country and that they were truly American, so people really tried to do their best to show that they were patriotic and whatever. I think the model minority myth, a lot of it comes from this kind of oppression that Japanese Americans felt during the war and afterwards. Yeah, so that's why I think people felt like they had to really prove themselves.

TEWES: Thank you for sharing that. In a similar vein, the ways in which you spoke yesterday about the redress movement really opening up these conversations, these tough conversations about the 00:44:00past, I'm also curious what language you were hearing used around this time. For instance, the changing terminology around "internment" and "incarceration," and even "concentration camps" and "forced removal" and all this. How have you been thinking about the way language has been changing around incarceration?

MARU: I think it's still evolving to this day. I think more and more so now, people do refer to the camps as "concentration camps," and not as much as "internment camps." Some people refer to people -- Japanese who were in camp as "prisoners," which I think is true, because people were forcibly put there and were behind barbed wire with 00:45:00guns pointed at them from the guard towers and things, so it is like being a prisoner. Although prisoner also can have the connotation that you're guilty of something, which was not the case. But I think "concentration camp" has become more the term that people do use now, and I think it is actually probably a more correct description of what it was. I think the redress movement had a lot to do with that.

TEWES: Was there clear conversation about what language to use then?

MARU: I think among the different organizations and groups that were involved, there 00:46:00was probably some controversy over using the word "concentration camp," and I think maybe some of the Niseis or people in -- such as members of JACL, [Japanese American Citizens League], were more opposed to that kind of terminology, and wanted to keep it more neutral or less provocative. [laughs] But I think over the years, as things developed and as things have evolved and changed, I think "concentration camp" has become more the acknowledged term to use. At least that's my understanding.

TEWES: I'm also curious to hear about 00:47:00any exposure you've had to World War II incarceration, or broadly the Japanese American experience, through popular culture. Like, are there books you've read or movies you've seen, et cetera, where you feel like you've been able to engage with this history?

MARU: There are different movies. One of the ones that comes to mind is this one called Stand Up for Justice: [The Ralph Lazo Story], which was made down here in LA by Visual Communications and some other filmmakers. It was about the Ralph Lazo story. Ralph Lazo was a Chicano who lived in Boyle Heights and was very good friends with Japanese Americans, like Niseis. So when the camps came about 00:48:00and he couldn't understand why his friends were being sent off to camp, he actually snuck onto one of the buses and went into camp with his friends, [laughs] until he was discovered and then they sent him home. So the story, Stand Up for Justice, is about him and how it was that he ended up going to camp. They did the filming of it, part of it was in -- well, it was all in Southern Cal, but they needed extras for some of the scenes when they were loading people onto the trains, so my kids were some of the extras in the movie. [laughs] My daughter, I can't remember how old she was, she was pretty young at that time. I think that she was about maybe eight or something. But there's a full-on face shot of her in the movie! And then some of my other friends were also extras. They're all dressed in 00:49:00costume during the forties, that kind of costuming and stuff. But yeah, so that movie, in particular, is special to me.

TEWES: Well, what an experience! Have your children talked to you about what that was like, being able to be in a movie about an ancestral experience?

MARU: We haven't talked about it too much, but at the time it was, for them, it was really fun. We had to get up at like 3:30 in the morning and go down to Little Tokyo, to Visual Communications, where they had the room set up for where they got dressed. And then they had to have their hair and makeup done. And then by like, I don't know, 7:00 in the morning, they had to take these buses up to Fillmore, CA. But it's about an hour-and-a-half away, where they were doing the 00:50:00train scene, because that's where they were able to get this train that they were going to use, where they could film it. They only had a certain window of time before the train had to be in use. But anyways, so for them, it was like kind of an experience getting up real early when it was still dark outside, getting their costumes on, and hair and makeup done and all that stuff. So they had a good time.

TEWES: Wow! Are there any other connections to popular culture that you'd want to mention?

MARU: Hmm. I know there's a lot of other things out there. [laughs] I just can't think of things right now.

TEWES: I think Farewell to Manzanar is pretty well known.

MARU: 00:51:00Yeah, yeah.

TEWES: Have you ever read that or watched the movie?

MARU: Yeah, many years ago. I haven't seen it recently. Sorry, I'm kind of blanking out. I can't think of anything right now. [laughs]

TEWES: Do you know if you've ever sought out anything that's about Topaz or Gila River?

MARU: I haven't seen any specific films or anything on either of those camps.

TEWES: Yeah, no worries.

MARU: I mean, they have pilgrimages and reunions for almost all of the camps, but I've only gone on the Tule Lake and Manzanar pilgrimages. I've been to Gila to do what they call the cleanup, but --

TEWES: Yeah, tell me more about that.

MARU: I don't know 00:52:00exactly what year it started, but people -- mainly folks who live in Phoenix, which is the closest large city to Gila -- would do these annual trips out to Gila River to clean up the monument, because there's a monument built there. But it's on tribal land, so you can't just drive out there and do whatever. You have to get permission, and you have to be escorted out there by members of the tribal council. So each year, there would be a group that would go out there and do this cleanup with the permission. But then what happened was the main person who was organizing those cleanups passed way, and he was sort of the main connection to the tribal council. So then it got passed down to someone else, and then that person passed away. 00:53:00Members of the tribal council have changed over the years, as well, and I think people are still trying to keep good relations with them so they can continue to do this. But I don't know if they have been able to, because of the pandemic, so I'm pretty sure for the past couple years it hasn't happened. It may happen again this year.

But basically, people go out to Chandler, Chandler, Arizona, which is another town that's close to Gila. They meet out there, and then they meet up with the member from the tribal council that escorts people onto the grounds. And then people take 00:54:00trash bags and just pick up all the litter. Because unfortunately, the monument is like a place where, I guess, young teenagers go who live on the reservation. And they graffiti the monument, and then they break a lot of bottles. There's a lot of beer cans and just a lot of trash, basically, that accumulates there. So the purpose is to get rid of all the broken glass, all the trash, and then repaint the monument to get rid of all the graffiti. That was done annually. Hopefully it will continue to be done annually when things are able to go back to going out there again. But yeah, so that was the only time I've been to Gila was to do the cleanup.

TEWES: So you only went once?

MARU: 00:55:00Yeah, I think I just went once.

TEWES: All right. I think that was around 2015, you told me.

MARU: Maybe. I don't remember exactly what year. Maybe a little later, but around that time.

TEWES: I'm curious what it was like for you being able to visit Gila River, knowing that your father's family was [incarcerated] there?

MARU: I mean, seeing any of these locations is always a very sobering moment, to see where people had to live for up to four years. These are like really desolate areas, and it's usually in the desert, where the weather is pretty extreme. And 00:56:00it's also sad that it's also the reservations where Native Americans live to this day, right? So they live in these areas that aren't the best land, either. One of the people out at Gila who had the connection with the tribal council became very good friends with a lot of the Native Americans, I guess, while he was even in camp, and after camp continued to be friends with them. And so he was the one that really started the whole cleanup thing. But like I said, he did pass away, so that connection was kind of lost when he died.

TEWES: I know you've been to Manzanar, and I want to talk about that in a moment, 00:57:00but what about Topaz? That's where your mother's family was [incarcerated].

MARU: I haven't been to Topaz, and actually I want to go, because they built an interpretive center out there. They had a pilgrimage there, I think, in 2017. I wasn't able to make it at that time, but I would really like to go out there, because I do want to see what it was like for my mother's side of the family. And so yeah, I plan to go out there at some point maybe the next pilgrimage they have. Yeah.

TEWES: What are you hoping to get out of that experience? What are you expecting?

MARU: Well, I think it's kind of to pay respects for the people who were 00:58:00there, people who passed away who were there when they were there. And just as a reminder of what my family went through, to see for myself what it looks like today. I mean, I'm sure it's changed, but it gives you some idea of what they had to live through. And you know, to see the interpretive center. Usually what they have is like a rendering of what the camp setup was, like where all the barracks were and things like that. So that's always like pretty impressive to see what it looked like. They have that for Manzanar, they have a scale model of what the camp was and what it looked like at that time. 00:59:00I would like my kids to go out there, too, so they could see it.

TEWES: Have they expressed interest?

MARU: Not specifically, but I think if I asked them to go, they would. Like because they wanted to go to Manzanar and they've seen that, so I think they would go. I mean, they have an interest in our family history and stuff.

TEWES: Yeah. I believe you also talked to me about the first Tule Lake pilgrimage.

MARU: You know, actually, I found out that it wasn't the first one.

TEWES: Okay.

MARU: There were actually, I think, two before the one that I went on, but the one that I worked on and went [to] was, I believe, in 1975, and then there have been many since then. I worked on one in 01:00:00'75, and I believe I went a second time, maybe a year or two later. The Tule Lake pilgrimages were really interesting. Because, one, it's really far to get there. It's right near the Oregon border, and so I think Klamath Falls, I think, is the closest city or something to where the camp was. The first time we went, there was still a guard tower that was on the ground that had fallen, that was there, that we got to see. It's not there anymore, I think it's been taken away or preserved or something. I'm not sure where it is, but I'm pretty sure it's not there anymore.

When we went the first time, I was a student at 01:01:00Laney [College] and worked in the Asian Student Union. There were ASUs from all the different campuses, like San Francisco State, UC Berkeley, Laney, a number of other campuses that were all working on this and mobilizing people to go. So it was largely young people, but also a lot of Niseis went, especially people who were formerly at Tule Lake. We stayed in this high school that was the closest place to the camp. There was also, I think, a fairground, where we used the facilities at this fairground for the dining hall and where the program, I think, took place. People had to sleep on the floor of, I think it was a gymnasium or something, and then I slept 01:02:00outside. It was cold, but we had down sleeping bags. I slept outside, like camping out. But it was really a very, very good experience. In fact, I think the next Tule Lake pilgrimage, I'm going to try to go on. But from here, it's really quite a distance. Well, I'm not sure how I'd get there, but, yeah, I'd like to go again.

TEWES: It's a journey.

MARU: Yeah.

TEWES: Well, you mentioned you were with an Asian student group. Is that how you got involved?

MARU: Yeah, I mean, after I graduated high school and started at Laney, I got involved in the Asian Student Union at Laney. And that's where I met a lot of friends and people who were actively involved in the anti-war movement, as well as other things, and so yeah, that's where I got involved.

TEWES: That's so 01:03:00interesting, because this is before you got involved in redress. You were already thinking about this particular history.

MARU: Yeah, that was like in '74 I'd started at Laney.

TEWES: My gosh! So many questions. One being: I know the first Manzanar pilgrimage was in 1969. How much do you think that inspired the Tule Lake work?

MARU: I'm sure it did inspire it. I don't know exactly the connections between people, because the Manzanar pilgrimage was organized by folks down here in LA, and the Tule Lake one was organized by people up in the Bay Area, primarily. Although, people from LA actually went to Tule Lake 01:04:00pilgrimages, as well, but the organization of it was done by a committee up in the Bay Area. So I can't tell you the direct connections, but I'm sure the fact that people were doing pilgrimages -- and I think Manzanar was probably the first -- definitely sparked interest in other areas and got people thinking about doing it at other camps. For people down in LA, Manzanar is only like three-and-a-half to four hours away, whereas Tule Lake is six or seven hours from the Bay Area, so it's not that easy to get to. It takes a while to get up there, whereas Manzanar you can do -- people, for the pilgrimage, there's a bus that leaves Little Tokyo. You go up to the pilgrimage, and there's a program there, then they have what's 01:05:00called Manzanar After Dusk, which is another program at the high school, and then the buses come back the same night. So it's like a one-day trip. Some people stay overnight. Like when I've gone, we stayed overnight and then came back the next day. Actually, sometimes we'd go up Friday and then come back Sunday.

TEWES: Following up with Tule Lake, you mentioned that Nisei were there for the event. I know Tule Lake has a kind of a fraught history, given the renunciants who were eventually sent there. What was the emotional mood at those pilgrimages you were at?

MARU: I think, you know, for people 01:06:00who were in camp, who were there, it's very -- it's emotional for them to be back there to see where they lived for three or four years. I think everyone who goes to the thing, there's always a whole range of emotions you feel. You know, you feel sadness, sorrow, but you also feel a lot of anger, and kind of like you want to express your opposition to what happened, you know, how wrong it was. And so there's just a 01:07:00whole range of emotions that people feel. I think at any of the pilgrimages, but probably in particular at Tule Lake, since all the people who answered the loyalty questionnaire "no, no," were all sent there. So I think Tule Lake probably has much more meaning and probably a lot more bitterness among people who were there than other camps. Also, a lot of families were split up, because different family members answered the questionnaires differently, so the ones who answered "no, no," were sent to Tule Lake, whereas if they didn't answer that way, they were in a different camp. So a lot of families got split up, 01:08:00which was another reason why I think there's a lot of anger and hostility around what happened there.

TEWES: These were your first pilgrimage experiences. Do you remember what you felt being there?

MARU: I mean, I think I felt a lot of those same emotions. My family members weren't there, but even still, you can imagine how others felt going back there. And at the time when I went -- actually, I think it was the 01:09:00second time I was with my boyfriend, at that time -- his father was at Tule Lake, and his parents came, so they were there, too. And I think that was really, you know, probably very emotional for all of them going back there. But I don't remember specifically. I mean, I was pretty young back then. It's a long time ago. I can't really remember exactly how I felt, but I know it was probably pretty moving. I mean, it's hard not to feel a lot of different emotions when you go back to somewhere like that.

TEWES: And clearly, you've sought out these experiences in other places, too, since then.

MARU: Yeah, I mean, I went on a tour of the camps that 01:10:00were Japanese Canadians were put in during World War II. And so that was in 2017. I went with some friends up to Vancouver. The tour of the camps up there was put on by the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre in Burnaby, right outside of Vancouver. This tour is of the different camps that Canadians, Japanese Canadians were put in during World War II.

That was really interesting, because it was very, very different than the experience of Japanese Americans, as far as the kind of camps there were, what they looked like, 01:11:00just everything about it was very, very different than here. But in some ways, it was just as harsh, if not harsher, than the conditions here. They didn't have barbed-wire camps the way they did in the United States. They put the Japanese Canadians into areas that were so remote, there was no way that anyone could leave, because you're out in these really thickly forested areas, that there are literally -- there was no way you could get out of there. So there were no barbed-wire fences or guard towers or things like that, but they just would put people into these very like abandoned mining towns or like these kind of ghost town areas, where there was really nothing else around there. And in some cases, they made the 01:12:00Japanese build their own barracks to live in, they had to build it themselves. They had to pay for their own transportation to get there. You know, just really kind of bizarre conditions that they went through. They also had one camp where they separated the men and boys from the women and girls, things like that. So they had some pretty, pretty bad conditions up there, as well.

TEWES: Has that brought you any perspective about how you think about the Japanese American experience?

MARU: Well, only in that what Japanese went through, whether it was in Canada or the United States, was really 01:13:00wrong and really terrible for people. I mean in Canada, they weren't allowed to return to British Columbia after the war, so that's why a lot of Japanese are now out on the other side of Canada, like in Toronto and places like that. Eventually, they were allowed to go back, but it took a while. And so the conditions that they faced were very difficult, too, just like, you know, for people here in this country.

TEWES: Thank you for sharing that. And we mentioned Manzanar. Do you remember the first time you went to Manzanar, either just on a daytrip or on a pilgrimage?

MARU: I think the 01:14:00first time we went there was just when we were going camping up in Mammoth, when my kids were young. It's on the way, right off the [Hwy.] 395, so we just stopped there and went to see the monument that they had. At that time, there was no interpretive center -- that's been built there since then -- so we just mainly saw the main -- it's kind of like a -- it's not a guard tower, but this station that you pass by when you enter, and then you continue on to the monument. But now, there's been so much more development of things at Manzanar since then. They have the interpretive center. They've put up these barracks to show like what -- one was like a mess hall or -- that had a kitchen and stuff. 01:15:00One was to show what the shower/bathroom situation was. They just have these barracks as models to show people this is what the conditions were when people were living there. So there's a lot more to see now, and you can get a lot more idea of what it was like than before when we went. So I think that was the first time that we went there, and I took my kids. They were pretty little.

TEWES: Do you remember what their reaction was?

MARU: I mean, I think they were interested and curious, but I don't think fully understood what the camps were, at that time, just because of their age. I mean, I think we tried to 01:16:00explain it to them, and explained that their grandparents were in the camp -- were not in this particular camp, but lived in similar conditions and stuff. But they were fairly young, so I don't know how much they really comprehended of what it was like for people or why it happened and things like that. I think since then, they've learned a lot more and understand what the history is and stuff, but at that time, I think they were a little too young.

TEWES: And how many times have you returned to Manzanar?

MARU: I think I've been there maybe four or five times. I don't go every year, but I've been there, yeah, maybe about 01:17:00four or five times. I went for the fiftieth anniversary of the pilgrimages, and then since then I think I went once or twice after that. Anyways yeah, I don't go every single year, but I try to go.

TEWES: You'd mentioned to me that one time you went, and you saw your brother there.

MARU: [laughs] Yeah, that was the last time I went, actually. I didn't know he was even going to be there, but there was a bus that came from San José. He lives in Sunnyvale, and they took the bus down there. And I just happened to run into him at the interpretive center, the gift store. [laughs] And then afterwards, they went to the Manzanar After Dusk and I saw them there, 01:18:00 too.

TEWES: How funny. Had you known he was interested in visiting? It seems like you're very interested in all this, but how much are your brothers wanting to participate?

MARU: Well, I was actually kind of surprised that he went! [laughs] I didn't know that they were interested. I think that was their first trip there, I believe. I don't know. He said, "Oh, I figured we'd run into you," meaning me. But yeah, I didn't really know that they had that much interest in checking it out, but I was glad they went, and it was good to see them there.

TEWES: So as you've mentioned, COVID[-19] has upset a lot of the ways that we're interacting with these sites. Have you been able to attend the Zoom 01:19:00pilgrimages for Manzanar, for instance?

MARU: Yes, I have done that for the past two years. This year it was pretty good.

TEWES: How does that compare to being in person?

MARU: I mean, it's a completely different feeling watching it on Zoom versus being there, but they try to have a lot of the similar kinds of events or features that they would have if you did it in person. So they have taiko. They have the roll call of all the camps, where they have these flags that show each of the camps and the numbers of people that were at each camp, they do that. They have the religious 01:20:00aspect of it, with Christian, Buddhist -- various religious leaders who do like a short kind of commemoration. And of course, they have a keynote speaker. This year they had a couple people from the National Park Service participate and give updates and things. I mean, it was good. It covered all the same kind of content that you would have if you were there in person, but it's just different when you're not there. And then afterwards, at the end of the pilgrimage, they always do the Obon Tanko Bushi dance, which I think they had it virtually, actually, where you could do it at home if you wanted 01:21:00to. [laughs] But that's very different, doing it virtually versus doing it in person.

TEWES: Knowing that you like to dance, were you dancing at home?

MARU: [laughs] No, no, not this time.

TEWES: Leave that to the others, okay. I'm also curious, given that your family still has connections to the Bay Area, if you've been involved with the Friends of Topaz at all over the years.

MARU: No, I haven't. I think it was 2017 was when Topaz opened their interpretive center. I would have gone, but that was 01:22:00right around the same time as the tour up in Canada, so we had already signed up for that and I couldn't really do both, so I missed it. But like I said, I think when they have future events or pilgrimages to Topaz, I do want to participate, but I haven't been involved in the committee. Yeah, I don't even know where -- it's probably in the Bay Area, I would imagine.

TEWES: Yeah. I'm also thinking about other ways we can encounter this history, not just through the site-specific places, but perhaps through museums, et cetera. I know you were recently at the Japanese American National Museum, [JANM]. Are there other places or exhibits that you've visited that for you 01:23:00have been a meaningful way to engage with this history?

MARU: Well, right now, the Japanese American National Museum here in LA has an exhibit up that has what they call augmented reality. I don't know what you call it exactly, but basically, you have these iPads, and I think there's -- I haven't been to it yet, so I can't tell you exactly what it is. [laughs] It's up until later this year, so I do plan to go, but I haven't been there yet. But anyways, you take this iPad, and you walk around with it and you see different things 01:24:00using the iPad somehow that look like it's 3D or something. Anyways, I heard it's really good. So what they have, I think outside, is some kind of enactment of when people had to gather there and then get onto the buses that took them to Manzanar. And so some of my friends were in the -- they, again, did the costuming and did hair and makeup to look like they were Nisei and Issei from back in that time, and they're part of this thing. So that's the other reason why I want to see it, because my friends are in it on that part of it. [laughs] But I do want to go check it out. I heard it was pretty good.

The other thing I went to not too long ago was back in December, was up in San José they have this -- another one of these augmented reality type of things where 01:25:00you -- it's called Hidden Histories of San José [Japantown], and it's different locations in San José Japantown, where certain things historically happened at these different sites. When you go to these sites, you can log in on your phone to this program, and it will show you on your phone while you kind of stand there with it, it shows you different artistic and historical kind of things that happened at that particular place. It's kind of hard to explain it, but this augmented reality is becoming more and more popular now. It's a new way of like using technology to explain not just 01:26:00history, but just explain events and things where you can make things appear as they were or -- you know what I mean? Or bring in like old photos or old historical artifacts and things, so that when you do like a tour, like a walking tour, you can actually see what this used to look like back in the day, you know? So anyways, it's really interesting, because I had never experienced anything like that, and they did a really nice job in San José.

TEWES: How do you think that augmented reality affects the experience you have as a visitor?

MARU: I thought it really helped give you a better idea of the history and what things might have looked like 01:27:00back then. They had various artists who were involved in this project, so each artist took one of the sites and tried to develop their own kind of art piece interpretation of what happened or what this particular site was about, and develop that for each location. So I thought it was really [good] not just for people who are out of town, I mean, even for people who live in San José who probably don't know any of this history either. I think it's really educational, as well as kind of fun, because yeah, it's just a new way of using technology that I've never seen before, so it was really kind of an experience.

TEWES: That's interesting. I'm going to have to check that 01:28:00out. We've been teasing at this throughout our conversations -- and folks watching the video can see this beautiful wall hanging behind you -- but sewing and textile arts have been really big in your family and been an important part of your lives. And you'd also mentioned today about picking up fabric in Japan. So can you tell me a little bit more about the creative work that you do?

MARU: Well, I learned how to sew from my mother at a very young age, and she just taught me a lot about sewing. I never was as good as her. [laughs] She was really excellent. She was a quilter, as well, which I'm not a quilter. But I've always enjoyed sewing and working with fabric. So I guess about 01:29:00maybe six, seven years ago, I started making just small knickknacks, like coin purses or cosmetic pouches or, I don't know, napkins, just an assortment of different things. And I started with my ex-husband's cousin, who also sews. She does a lot of dog clothing and dog accessories, collars and harnesses and things like that. So anyways, we would start selling our things at different craft fairs. And there's one at the Japanese American National Museum down here every year once a year called Kokoro Craft Fair, that she would get a table at, and I would share with 01:30:00her and we'd sell our things. She lives up in the Bay Area, so she also does other shows up there.

But over the years, I've started making children's jinbei, which are like these one-piece rompers or two-piece -- it's like a Japanese sort of like a kimono top, and then shorts. Or the one-piece one is just one piece with sleeves, and it crosses in the front and ties. Anyways, I make those for children, babies and kids up to age about four or five, and sell those. They are really what I buy the fabric for, the Japanese fabric, so almost all the jinbei I make are with Japanese prints. And then the other thing that I make is these 01:31:00portable ohashi cases with chopsticks that you carry with you, so that when you go eat at a restaurant, instead of using disposable chopsticks and throwing away the chopsticks, you use these and just wash them and keep reusing them. So that, actually, is my biggest seller. [laughs] And especially now, because people are trying to be more conscious of sustainability and things, people like having reusable chopsticks that they carry and use all the time when they go out to eat and stuff. So anyways, I have a whole range of things I make.

Because of the pandemic, there haven't been any craft fairs for the past couple years. But this year, JANM is going to have their craft show, so now I'm starting to really try to build up my inventory for 01:32:00that at the end of October this year, so it'll be the first time in a couple years. But I do sell my crafts at a store in Hawaii and another store in Eagle Rock down here.

TEWES: Wow, I did not realize your operation was so widespread. [laughs]

MARU: It's not that much. It's just two stores. [laughs]

TEWES: I seriously -- oh no, I learned something new here, Kimi.

MARU: But it's really just a hobby. I do have a business, but it's really I do it just more as a hobby and for fun.

TEWES: Well yeah, why is this fun? What do you get out of this experience?

MARU: I mean, for me, sewing is very therapeutic. I like working with my hands. It's just very calming and very meditative, in some ways, sewing, 01:33:00so I enjoy it. I like working with Japanese fabric, I use only cotton fabrics. And I enjoy, yeah, working with the fabric and creating these things which a lot of people like. And I like shopping for the fabric, too! [laughs] So it's just become a part of my life that I've been doing now for maybe six or seven years. When my kids were young, I used to sew them clothes and pajamas and things like that when they were growing up. But this has now become more like just a regular part of my life. I sew almost every day, so it's just something I do.

TEWES: Do you feel a connection to your heritage when you do this kind of 01:34:00 work?

MARU: Yeah, a little bit. I mean, I like using the Japanese prints. I like making the jinbei, which people -- a lot of my friends buy it for their grandchildren, and they wear them at the Obon festivals. So when I go to the Obons, I see a lot of my jinbei on people, which is kind of fun. [laughs] So yeah, there's that. And then I've been doing sashiko, which is Japanese embroidery, and I use that for making the ohashi cases, as well as other purses and things like that. So that's part of my Japanese culture, I guess.

TEWES: Is that something your mother taught 01:35:00 you?

MARU: No, that was something I just kind of picked up on my own, just because I like the way it looks. And it's, again, kind of therapeutic to just sit there and embroider. It was something I would do a lot when I would travel up to see my mom, because while I was at the airport waiting to board the plane, or even when I was on the plane, I would do that. So it became something I did whenever I had any kind of travel, I would do sashiko.

TEWES: We've mentioned your aunt, [Kay Sekimachi], is a wonderful textile artist. Have you ever felt any inspiration from her work?

MARU: Well, I mean, her work is way beyond what I 01:36:00do, as far as -- you know, [laughs] her work is really quite amazing. She is an inspiration, but I could never live up to her abilities. But I enjoy seeing everything she's created, and the fact that she's still creating work, even at her age now, is pretty amazing to me. But she has such a history of doing work in textiles from starting off with weaving and doing these monofilament pieces, hangings and things. And she has pieces all over, in many museums around the country -- actually, I think around the world. Yeah, she's quite an accomplished 01:37:00artist, and I feel really lucky to have her be my aunt.

TEWES: For the record, I just want to say her name is Kay Sekimachi, and one of the many monikers she's known as is "the weaver's weaver."

MARU: Yeah.

TEWES: So yes, she definitely has a wide following.

Well, Kimi, I want to back up. Yesterday, we spoke a lot about your activism and your political involvement, and one area we did not get to discuss was your involvement with the Nikkei Progressives. Can you tell me what this group is and how you became involved?

MARU: Okay, Nikkei Progressives, 01:38:00it's a multigenerational, all-volunteer group. We came together right after Trump was elected in 2016, because we realized that with him being president that horrible things would happen, and we needed to really organize ourselves and our community and try to fight against a lot of the things that he promised he would do, starting with the Muslim ban right after he took office. So many of us went to LAX and were protesting there, because when that Muslim ban was put into place, people who were trying to travel into this country, whether they had papers or had 01:39:00passports and visas and stuff, were being stopped. It was just like really terrible. So there were these huge demonstrations at LAX, which many of us participated in, to try to protest that the Muslim ban was really like a racist -- just a really messed up thing that he did. And then, yeah, things followed from there. A lot of other horrible things around immigration, and then separating families, putting children in cages, all these kind of things. So those were the type of things that Nikkei Progressives wanted to really push back against, to protest those things and organize people to do the same.

The 01:40:00areas of work we have are like immigration, so we've done a lot of work and participate in various coalitions around closing these detention centers that they have. The closest one to LA is in Adelanto, California, so we've made many trips out there to participate in protesting the kind of conditions and things that have happened to the people being detained there, which are largely people who are from either Mexico or different Central American countries. But there's also people there from Africa, from China, from other Asian countries, as well. We're still participating in those activities.

We've been working on the struggle for Black reparations, supporting the work 01:41:00that national groups are doing, as well as local groups, around helping to see the passage of HR-40. And now we're trying to get President Biden to do an executive order to establish a commission, similar to what the Commission was for Japanese Americans when we were fighting for redress. So we --

TEWES: Is that something that you're working on with NCRR, [now Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress]?

MARU: Yes, we're working on that together.

TEWES: Okay.

MARU: There's actually, just recently formed, a national Nikkei coalition for Black reparations -- it's NNRC, National Nikkei Reparations Coalition -- that have different groups from New York, Chicago, LA, San José, Seattle, and the Bay Area. So this coming 01:42:00week, actually, is a whole week of different actions that this newly formed coalition is going to be participating in. There are some events and programs, phone calling and letter writing that we'll be doing.

Another area of work that Nikkei Progressives has been involved in was around when anti-Asian violence was really happening a lot -- it still is, but at least in this area in LA, there haven't been as many incidents of it as in other areas. But we did do some organizing around it, because one of the temples in Little Tokyo, the Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple, someone came and started a fire and burned 01:43:00the -- they had these beautiful lanterns that had been handmade in Japan that were out in front of the temple. This person set fire to it, and then broke, I believe, one of the glass doors on the temple. So anyways, there was this vandalism that had been done right in the midst of when all this anti-Asian violence was going on. And so we didn't think it was just a coincidence that this happened, because another Buddhist temple down in LA was also vandalized during that same period of time. So we did some fundraising for the temple to try to help them repair the damage that was done, and also help them raise money so that they could get a better security system with cameras and things like that, to try to deter things like that from happening again.

And so in the course of that work, we 01:44:00also felt that it was important to try to have some self-defense classes, particularly focused towards the elderly and seniors, because they were the ones that were being more targeted. But it was open to all ages, as well. And so we organized about five or six different self-defense classes, where we had different martial arts instructors come and show people how to defend themselves in various situations. Every one of the classes we had was completely filled. We had to add extra classes, because we couldn't accommodate everyone in the number we had. So they were really well attended. People felt very positive about doing that, and they felt a little bit more 01:45:00confident about being outside walking the streets and stuff.

More recently in Nikkei Progressives, we have an art and culture committee that we're getting off the ground now, that's doing everything from video projects to field trips to various -- we went to a play that was held recently in Boyle Heights, which was about the camps. Actually, it was about right after the camps, when people returned back to Little Tokyo. It was called Masao and the Bronze Nightingale, and it was written by Dan Kwong and Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara. Rubén has been a really active and very strong supporter of Nikkei Progressives. Anyways, this was really an excellent play, and it was about a 01:46:00family when they returned to their home in Boyle Heights after the camps closed, and how Little Tokyo had become what they called Bronzeville. During the time when people were in camp, many African Americans came here from the South and from different parts of the country, and lived in the vacated places where Japanese left, as well as some of the businesses that were vacant became like jazz clubs or different things. So they called it Bronzeville, because a lot of the jazz musicians would play in Little Tokyo, and so it got that name.

Anyways, this play was all about some of the, I guess, controversies or issues that faced the 01:47:00Japanese when they came back to Little Tokyo and had to deal with the situation of people who were living in their homes or businesses. So it tried to bring out some of the controversies or contradictions between Blacks and Japanese, as well as the relationships between the Latino community and Japanese when they left Boyle Heights and came back, and things like that. It was really an excellent play. So we had a field trip to that play and then went out to dinner afterwards.

The Art and Culture Committee is also planning to go tour some of the murals in Los Angeles. One, in particular, is called The Great Wall [of Los Angeles], that was designed by Judy Baca, who is 01:48:00a Latino artist. And it tries to depict the whole history of Chicanos in the LA area, and it's like a half-mile long along the walls of the LA River. And actually, I think they're going to be extending it for another half mile or something. I know that it's in the works now, they're trying to continue it. But anyways, the mural is up, and so we're trying to set up a time where we're going to go walk and see the mural. And we're actually trying to see if there's someone from her group, which is called SPARC, [Social and Public Art Resource Center], who could give us a walking tour of the mural.

And then we have also what's called a Little Tokyo committee, that's trying to deal with some of the issues facing Little Tokyo. One of the issues right now that they've been dealing with is the 01:49:00unhoused situation in Little Tokyo, where there were quite a few unhoused people living on this area above this parking lot called Toriumi Plaza. It's been a very controversial issue in Little Tokyo, because many of the businesses felt that having the unhoused people living there were affecting their businesses, because they felt that people wouldn't come to Little Tokyo if they had to see all these unhoused people and walk by them from the parking lot to the restaurants and things in Little Tokyo. So there was a lot of kind of debate over that. About a month ago, the city councilperson for this area 01:50:00had the Toriumi Plaza cleared out. [dog barks] They tried to provide what they called Project Roomkey to the people who were unhoused, which was to give them a voucher to live in.

TEWES: Let's pause for a second.

MARU: Okay.

TEWES: [break in audio] All right. We're back from a break, and you were just talking about the plaza in Little Tokyo.

MARU: Right. So the whole issue has been pretty difficult in Little Tokyo, because there's basically different views on how to look at the question of unhoused and how to also be respectful of the businesses. It's just been a very 01:51:00difficult issue, and it's complicated, because there is no simple answer to how to resolve the whole problem with so many unhoused people in LA, and in Little Tokyo, in particular. So anyways, that's one of the areas that we've been trying to work on. [dog barks]

TEWES: Let's pause. [break in audio] All right, we are back from a break. Kimi, is there anything you want to say, wrapping up your discussion of Nikkei Progressives or your current activism?

MARU: Just one other area of work that we're involved in is electoral work. So for the elections in -- 01:52:00was it last year?

TEWES: The 2020 election?

MARU: Yeah, the 2020 elections, we were involved with doing some get-out-the-vote work. Because of the pandemic, we had to do everything virtually, so it was mainly doing text banking and phone banking and letter writing and postcard writing to try to get people out to vote, which we're going to be doing again for this coming election cycle. We do this as Friends of Nikkei Progressives, not as Nikkei Progressives. But we are going to be trying to do voter education, as well as voter turnout.

TEWES: Wow, I'm impressed with 01:53:00the breadth of the work that you all are doing, and the connections you're making between the communities. That's really interesting.

Well, as we wrap up here today, we spoke quite a bit about incarceration history and the ways in which you've engaged with it over the years. I'm curious what you would like future generations to know about that moment in time, about Japanese American incarceration.

MARU: Well, I just think it's really important for future generations to learn about our history, to know what happened so that they can make sure that things like this don't happen again. I think that's why history is so important, is to learn lessons and to make sure that history doesn't repeat 01:54:00itself, especially the negative things or things that were done wrongfully to others. And I think it's important for future generations to understand our history, so that we can have a legacy and pass on good traditions to future generations. So that's part of why I'm doing this, is hopefully for future generations to have a better life, hopefully a better world to live in that's safer, and hopefully we can accomplish things to save this planet. So anyways, that's pretty much why I'm doing 01:55:00 this.

TEWES: You know, throughout, we've alluded to the deep pain incarceration has caused individuals and families for many generations. I'm wondering how you have thought about the healing process on your own.

MARU: I think being involved in a lot of these different issues, not just around the camps itself, but around immigration, around electoral work and all the different things that we're involved with, trying to right the wrongs or fight for justice for people, justice and equality, it's all part of healing. It's part of preventing it from 01:56:00happening again. And so I think that's part of being able to heal and to overcome a lot of the injustices that has been put upon, not just Japanese Americans, but all people in this country who have faced discrimination, racism, all kinds of inequities. So that's, you know, that's my message to people, is: get involved. That's the best way of healing.

TEWES: Thank you for that. And finally, what would you like people to remember about your life and the work that you do?

MARU: [laughs] Well, it's not so much I want people to remember my life. I 01:57:00think more what it is, is I want people to hopefully see themselves as agents of change, that everyone can participate to make things better for others. If you dedicate your life to trying to make lives better for others, I think that's an important thing that everyone should participate in on some level and try to contribute to society, to make the society a better place for everyone.

TEWES: That's beautiful, thank you. Those are all the questions I have for you. Is there anything you want to make sure we add?

MARU: I can't think of anything offhand, but if I come up with 01:58:00anything, I'll let you know.

TEWES: [laughs] Of course. Thank you so much for your time, Kimi. I really appreciate it.

MARU: Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for doing this interview.

TEWES: You're welcome.

[End of Interview]