Medal for Outstanding Civic Service

Transcription

I'm Pedro Ezcurra, a senior in media and cultural studies at UCR. I was excited to interview Christine Sato-Yamazaki Our Alumni Service Awardee because her work with--and on behalf of--Japanese-American World War II veterans has helped to right a wrong in American history and bring recognition to a very deserving group of American citizens. I met Christine at the national "Go For Broke" monument in downtown LA. We then walked next door to the Japanese-American National Museum to continue our talk. You graduated from UCR in '92? Yes. Okay. And how did you go on from being a recent graduate to becoming involved with this? So my grandfather served in the 442nd regimental combat team and that was a segregated unit during World War II comprised of Japanese-Americans. He was born in the United States. America was the only country that he knew. So when it came to the question of whether you fight for your country there was no question about it. It was something that he was going to do--and very proudly. I knew about the internment camps where Japanese-Americans were housed during the war. I learned that go for broke was a battle cry of the 442nd regimental combat team. My grandpa was working at "Go For Broke" building the "Go For Broke" monument, and it was a long journey for them to build this. And that really was the start of my journey to work on this story to advocate for the story of the Japanese-American WWII veterans. Did you know anything about the Japanese-American World War II experience at all? I had no idea that there were Japanese-American soldiers fighting during World War II. That came as a shock to me. Yeah, and I think that the story itself really demonstrates a lot about conviction, you know, courage, loyalty to country, and really having a strong personal belief in the principles of this country. Yeah, I think it says a lot about-- to talk about America as this global entity is such a nuanced and complicated topic, and I think there's a lot of very dark aspects to American history, but I think it says a lot about these peoples' belief in the fundamental experiment that is America. You know, and kind of being able to separate the American government from that American ideal. So why don't you tell me about your current work. Right now I'm serving as the chairperson of the National Veterans Network. It's a coalition of Japanese-American organizations in eight different regions of the United States. One of the first projects that we worked on was the Congressional Gold Medal. The Congressional Gold Medal is the nation's highest civilian honor that is bestowed by the United States' congress. So, from high school you went on to UCR. Why did you pick UCR? It was interesting because I got accepted into UCLA the first year after I went to Riverside, but I made a decision to stay at UC Riverside. And I think considering where I am right now and what I've been able to experience and witness in my career, it was a good decision. In the end, it struck me how Christine has made it her life's work to bring recognition to a marginalized group that fought to defend the same government that mistreated them, and that surprised the nation with their willingness to fight. Perhaps it's fitting then that UCR has chosen to recognize her for all her work as well.