To serve as a lawyer

The Kona Island community Going to Japanese school Starting work at five years old Traveling the world seven times Remembering December 7, 1941 Being an American soldier and an "enemy alien" Volunteering to serve for the U.S. military in Japan Meeting Japanese Americans from the mainland in MIS Awareness of concentration camps as a Japanese American Not relating to Japan Americans' experiences on the mainland Visiting family in Japan Being stationed in Japan during the American occupation Rebuilding Japan Investigating labor movements in Japan Feeling closer to Japan as a Japanese American Serving as a lawyer to Americans in Japan To serve as a lawyer Defining the term Nikkei

Transcripts available in the following languages:

I think as a lawyer we are a service organization. And to me, the basic service you render is to give legal advice. My feeling has developed in me, and that is that whatever you own or have you should share, or give, or impart, any knowledge, information, intelligence, it should be shared. Keeping it in you they are worthless. And that’s the feeling I have is to impart and to give out and give away if I can. To the extent that I can, even now, we try to do that. That is the service element that was really built into me during my legal practice.

Date: May 29, 2006
Location: Hawai`i, US
Interviewer: Akemi Kikumura Yano
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

lawyers