Afterwards wes moore traces his career choices from combat veteran to social entrepreneur to find his lifes purpose. On American History tv on cspan3 saturday night just after 7 00, the 1963 interview of malcolm x discussing Race Relations and opposition to racial integration and sunday at 6 30 p. M. Eastern, former cia chief of disguise tells the story of a husband and wife kgp spy team that infiltrated through the use of sex. Send us a tweet at cspan. In 2008 he was interviewed about congressional efforts to seek redress. Its about an hour for this world history. Today is friday july 4th 2008. Were in denver at the Japanese American National museums conference, and this morning we have secretary Norman Mineta with us. And im doing this differently. We usually do an oral history and i start from the very beginning. But because of time constraints, im really going to focus on the redress, so the first question, i just want to find out, was there anything in your early life that led you to politics . Well, not really. I dont think anyone really, at an early age, says, you know, im going to be other than, i guess, kids saying i want to be president of the United States. But i dont think anyone really says, i want to be mayor of san jose, california. But, you know, being and i started Community Activities within the Japanese American Community through our san jose japanese methodist church, jacl, and then that sort of expanded into activities in the total majority community. And so those kinds of Community Activities then led me to the possibility of being appointed to the city council. The first time i didnt run for the city council. We had a mayor who was we had our first directly elected mayor, and that created a vacancy on the city council. So the new mayor and two members of the city council came to me and said, weve got to fill that vacancy on the city council. Would you consider putting your name in for it . So i said, well, you know, im in business with my father and i really should talk to him about this. So, anyway, i talked to my dad and he said, well, we could make the arrangements between how you and i conduct the business. But he said in japan there is an old adage about if youre in politics, youre going to be like the nail sticking out of the board. You know what happens to that nail . It always gets hammered. The question is, are you going to be able to take that hammering . I thought about it and talked to a lot of friends and finally said, okay, ill put my name in. So i was appointed to the city council for the twoyear unexpired term of the mayor who had vacated that post to become the new mayor. So then in 1969, i then ran for election to stay on the city council. So i have a question. Do you think if you were not appointed to that position, would it have ever occurred to you to run for city council . Well, i had people asking if i would consider doing it. And i was the first nonwhite on the city council. And so i always thought, you know, that would really be a difficult task. So even though i had people ask me about it, i always dismissed it. But this was an opportunity through an appointment, not election. So you get appointed, then you do your job, then you can seek election. So in 1969, i ran for the City Council Post that i had by appointment. But on the brochure, i couldnt say reelect norm because i hadnt been elected in the first place, so we used the phrase retain norm on the council. How supportive was the Japanese American Community to your campaign . Very. I had great support from within the community. At that point it was probably maybe 2 of the population, 3 . Very, very small. But i had great support from the Japanese American Community. And so that was also true by 1970, i had become vice mayor, and then in 1971, for the reelection for the mayors post, the mayor decided not to seek reelection. So then that mayor and many people said, hey, youve got to run for mayor. Well, i was trying to split my duties between being on the city council and running the business, and it was really taking more and more time, and so i decided to run for mayor in 71. So that was probably the most difficult decision i had to make between, you know, a career choice in terms of the Insurance Business that had been in the family since 1920 and then running for mayor, because that really was going to take fulltime. When you decide to do make that choice, to go into politics fulltime, what possibility were you hoping for by going into politics . What were you thinking at that point . Only about what is it i could do as mayor of san jose. And i think as i look back over the 40 years i have been in public service, one of the things i always tried to do was not to get caught up in this whole thing about where are you going to be . Where you going . And looking out into the future as to where you want to go. Because i think a lot of people make a mistake about keeping their sight on where they want to go and theyll stumble over something right in front of them. And so ive always maintained work hard at the job youre in. Do a good job there. Because then if you come to a fork in the road and its like the Great American philosopher yogi berra said when you come to the fork in the road, take it. But if people are so intent on their goal way over there, thats driving them. Its not a personal decision. I want to be in control of myself, not let other outside things direct me as to what im going to be doing. So ive always maintained work hard at the job youre in, and so i always figured, just work hard at being mayor. Be a good mayor. And whatever happens in terms of opportunities that pop up or whatever you want to do, you can then do it. If youre a mayor and a very difficult task comes up, if youve got credibility and a depth of reserve of good will that you can sacrifice some of that good will to take on this very difficult task. And so i always felt, you just work hard at the job youre at. Dont worry about having to keep your sight on where youre going to go in the future, because that can really you can stumble over something right in front of you. Thats such a simple, yet powerful, philosophy. Where did that come from . Do you recall anyone telling you that, or is that something that just evolved over time . In terms of the business, my dad used to always talk about that. In terms of he used to say, plan your work and work your plan. Because he was always one who tried to make sure that, you know, you just dont do things willynilly, but that you had to be organized in how you go about doing things. His basic philosophy to me was always, plan your work and work your plan. So describe how you then decided to go for National Office to become a congressman . How did that happen . Purely by accident. In about the third week in january, 1974, quarter to 6 00 in the morning on a sunday, the phone rings. I pick up the phone. Hello . Hey, norm, have you seen the paper . Jimmy, its quarter to 6 00 in the morning on sunday. Of course, i havent seen the paper. He said, charlie goobster is not going to seek reelection. Charlie goobster was our member of congress. Had been for 24 years. I said, thats nice. No, no, no, no. Youve got to run. I said, jimmy, i announced in september of 73 that i was going to seek reelection in 74. We did a big fundraiser in october, tom bradley, the mayor of l. A. Came up, did a fundraiser for me, and were on our way for reelection campaign. No, no, no, youve got to run for congress. I said, jimmy, go back to sleep. Im going back to sleep. So i hung up on him and didnt think anything about it. Well, 7 00 that night, the door bell rings, so i go open the door, and i look at this guy and say, mike, what are you doing here . He said, i dont know. Jim told me to be here at 7 00 tonight. What did he tell you . He said, nothing. He just said be at norms at 7 00. Jim, unbeknownst to me had invited people to be there at 7 00 that night. People were knocking on the door, people were flying in. Jim had gotten all these people together to come to the house, talking about when you say jim, who is that . Jim bono was an attorney in san jose. And a close friend of mine. Okay. And he just did this on his own. So continue the story. All these people. Anyway, this is 1974, and this seat had been held by the republicans for, i dont know, 48 years or Something Like that. And the question was, can a democrat win this congressional seat . And, you know, there was the Fair Housing Act of 1964 on the ballot statewide. Wilson riles was an africanamerican who ran for state superintendent of public instruction statewide and won. So the question was, if you take some of these maybe six or eight issues that had been on the ballot and sort of researched them, could we see whether or not this 13th Congressional District could be won by a democrat . And but in those days, it was, you know, before you were in microsoft and computers werent even around, and you had to go in and say, okay, precinct 337. 100 voted in 1964 on proposition 13. You take down the numbers. You had to go through and recreate this thing on maybe eight issues over a 12year period. So we had to have lots of people go to the registrar of voters to get all this information. Well, thats what we ended up discussing that night. And my protestations were about, no, im running for mayor. And they were sitting there organizing, saying, what other issues do we need to take a look at . All these people were bent on me running for Congress Without me saying okay, i would consider doing it. So it took them about five weeks to do this. We all got together again. They said, you know, theres a chance this is during the whole watergate issue that started bubbling up in 72, 73, and by this time, this is february of 74, or march, and i think it was Something Like five days before the end of the declaration period. I said, im now running for congress, so if you feel inclined to do so, please feel free to send some money in. What made you decide to run . In looking at the figures and talking to family, talking to friends and, you know, they just encouraged me to do that. And so but it was one of those things, again, where, you know, its not something that even crossed my mind at some point that i would even think of running for congress. And so that was a pretty risky thing. The mayor was probably a pretty sure thing. It was. And here youre trying to go after a republican seat. And the thing is that there was a very wellknown republican by the name of george million. A very fine individual. Had been a member of the state assembly, his family ran a hotel in gilroy in the southern part of the district, and he had been appointed by president nixon to be the regional head for the Environmental Protection agency in san francisco, and then from there, they moved him back to d. C. As assistant secretary of army for environmental affairs. So, i mean, he had a long political heritage, and so i knew it was going to be a tough race. But when you look at it, the population was mostly in the san jose, santa clara, Saratoga Los Gatos area and went down to gilroy, but gilroy was also a lesser populated area, so his name recognition was much higher in that part of the district, so the whole question about, you know, who do we have to work with down in that area, and i remember one of the fines that we had was a person who used to support george mileas in other races for the state assembly on the congressional race, and this fellow said, ill support you. He was a very prominent fellow in gilroy and it was really a big boost when this fellow said, yeah, ill support you. So how much did you win by this election . Well, i had to get by the primary first. There were about, oh, eight or nine people in the primary. But i won the primary by i think it was 63 . And then in the general election, it was Something Like i won 51 and george got Something Like 39 or 40, and there is a peace and freedom and some other candidates in there that made up the balance. So it was a solid win. It was about 51 . So at the time, you were the first japanese american mainland. Dan, you know i had gone to congress in 59. Thats right. Mainland. At that point you were going in danny was the center nancy mick was there. Spark was there as well. Im going to jump ahead now and actually switch topics, but i wanted to ask you, when was the first time you heard about the topic of redress for japanese americans . There had been talk about it. Edison muno had been talking about redress for quite a while. There was a lot of conversation about redress. But it wasnt until the Salt Lake City convention of the Japanese American Citizens League in 1978 when the National Convention adopted a onesentence resolution that said that to undertake a legislative program seeking an apology in redress payment of 25,000 per individual interned during world war ii, and that was it. And that was adopted at that Salt Lake City convention. And were you at that convention . I was at the convention. I did not participate in any of the discussion. And, you know, people would say, what do you think . Do you think we can get this passed . I dont know. I mean, thats a real long shot. You know, im not sure well ever accomplish this. But i never got into the discussion on the floor of the convention. I was in a convention delegate. I was really there more as an observer. What were you thinking . You must have thought, okay, so this is going to fall into my lap pretty soon and theyre talking about legislative talking about legislative action in office. What were you thinking . It wasnt until about september i dont recall when, september or october of 78. The officers of the sale came back to meet the senator and myself, and bob had been elected to congress in 76. This is 78. So when we all assembled, i remember the first thing i said was [ japanese ] which is, were in deep straits here, what do we do with this . So we had some real good conversations about them, and senator anoa said, you know, were not going to get this passed until the American People know what happened. And once they know, then they will talk to their representatives and their senators and they will then get an idea about what went on. But until we get the public knowledgeable about this, well get nowhere on this issue. And he said there was the Warren Commission about the kennedy assassination, and those Commission Reports, the hearings, went on for a long time. They were on the news every night, they issued the Warren Commission report. That was on news a lot. The Commission Report itself became a best seller. He says, thats what weve got to do. Then he was talking about the kent state killings. And ive forgotten the name of that commission. But he talked about that commission. He said, unless we get the hot focus, the publicity, on evacuation, were not going to get anywhere. So spark said, well, ive got a bill and maybe we can use that as a basis for this commission. I had a legislative director of a brilliant young kid named glen roberts, and his brother Steve Roberts was a reporter for the new york times, and steves wife is cookie roberts with cbs. So, anyway, glen was sitting in on this meeting, and so he took sparkys bill on native hawaiian claims and converted that to what became the commission on wartime internment and relocation of civilians. And the Commission Bill passed and the commission was formed with president not Truman Carter appointing the commissioners. And they set out to work on it. The life of the commission under the original bill, i believe, was one year. We had to extend it to make it two years, and then i think it was either 81 i think it was 81 or maybe 82 when the Commission Report came back. I want to go back. After the decision was made to pursue the commission path, when you would go back to san jose, what would people say to you about that decision . Was that a controversial decision . It wasnt it was probably more benign. It was probably not so much controversial as it was, thats nice youre doing it, and that was t. Because people just didnt think it was going to go anywhere. It was mission impossible. And, you know, you had a lot of people who i mean, core people who were very much in favor of pursuing this action, and so they were all hyped up, but i would say 90 could care less, and maybe 20 were really this happened in 42. Why are you bringing this up now . Lets let it die. Forget it. But that was a small group. Maybe not even 20 . So tell me what the hearings did for you when they started in the various cities . Were you able to attend any of them, or what was it like . I did, and it was just very, very moving. And but, you know, as were putting together this Commission Bill, i wanted to make sure that we had prominent members of the congress. If i dropped the bill in, people were like, oh, thats selfserving. So i didnt want us to be in the forefront on this thing. And so i wanted to make sure that we had Judiciary Committee members who were going to be considering this bill and committing tobacco to be cosponsors and then i would call and talk to these people on a oneonone basis about being a cosponsor. Then i talked to one fellow on the judiciary. He said, its nice to have you here, norm. What do you have for me . So i said, tom, ive got this bill and it has to do with forming the commission, going back to the whole issue of evacuation and internment. He sort of looked off into the distance and said, yeah, i remember hearing about it. I think my old boss somehow was involved in that. I said, really . What did you do . He sa