Japanese Americans Obtain Redress Guest, Dr. Mitchell Maki

Added: 2026-06-08

[00:00:03]Hello everyone out there and welcome back once again to another live edition of the WGSN DB Going Solo Veterans Corner. And of course, I'm your host, retired Army First Sergeant Paul Obert.

[00:00:15]It is good to be with you again tonight.

[00:00:18]I want to thank our audience for joining us like you do.

[00:00:22]Uh for those of you that watch us live, it's great. Uh for those of you that don't catch us live but watch the recordings, we really appreciate you as well. All the messages and and information. And thank you for the audience because you are the ones who helped us make a list of the top 25 podcasts here in Northern Virginia to watch. So, we really appreciate that and we continue we welcome your continued audience here in our show. Uh just very quickly before we get into tonight's show, as [clears throat] always, I just want to mention our sponsors. Uh some of you may notice that Quest Jewelers, I do want to say a big just a quick thank you to them because they sponsored our show for about the first 3 years we were in place. And they finally uh have made a change in the store.

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[00:02:38]So, let's move on to tonight's show, and this one I think is going to be interesting. Tonight's guest is actually Dr. Mitchell Maki, and and Mitch, as he said I could call him, is actually the president CEO of the Go For Broke National Education Center.

[00:02:55]It's a nonprofit organization that that's committed to maintaining and applying the legacy of World War II Nisei veterans. Did I say that right?

[00:03:05]>> You sure did. You got it, Paul.

[00:03:07]>> Okay. Yeah, I want to ask you about that in a minute, too, but Dr. Maki is also um he's the author of an award-winning book, Achieving the Impossible Dream: How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress, and that was a detailed case study of the passage of the 1988 Civil Liberties Act. So, we're going to talk a little bit about that as well, and find out how that came about. Um the interesting thing is, he's also served on the board of governors and scholarly advisory councils of the Japanese American National Museum and Go For Broke National Education Center. So, we are really glad to have you, Mitch, Dr. Mitchell, but I mean, Dr. Maki, but um >> me Mitch.

[00:03:50]>> Yeah, and it's great to have you, and and I have to tell you I know I mentioned right before the show as we were talking that I had no idea there was an organization like [clears throat] yours even out there. So when I found out about this and someone relayed the information I said oh yeah we definitely have to get him on the show. So welcome so much and thank you for joining us tonight.

[00:04:16]>> Well no thank you for having me and before we begin I want to start off by saying to you Paul in particular thank you for your service to our nation and to all of your viewers and listeners who have served or are currently serving thank you very much. My father was a tech sergeant during the Korean conflict in the US Army. So I greatly appreciate all that you and all the others have done for all of us.

[00:04:41]>> Well you know what you know you don't mind me asking is your father still alive?

[00:04:45]>> No unfortunately he passed about 10 years ago but you know he served during the Korean conflict and as I mentioned was a tech sergeant uh earned a Purple Heart as well as a Silver Star and I grew up hearing his stories and it he was always a hero to me.

[00:05:02]>> Well I tell you what I'm going to I'm going to ask you right here on air and don't be embarrassed but I think I may circle back around to you and see if we can have you back on to share your father's story with us.

[00:05:16]>> Be happy to do that too.

[00:05:17]>> You would I'd love to have you on do that. We had several children of veterans both deceased and you know disabled have come on and share the story of their their father or brother and you know so we we'll do that. We'll set that up.

[00:05:34]>> Well actually Paul you know it's kind of a interesting place where we could start where if you think about my father was a Japanese American serving in the US Army. He was a tech sergeant and he had men reporting to him and this is during the Korean conflict in the early 50s, right?

[00:05:49]>> Yeah.

[00:05:50]>> And if you think about it, here a Japanese-American soldier was in a position of authority over primarily white soldiers at that time. But only eight years earlier during World War II, and that's the story we're going to talk about, Japanese-Americans were in a segregated unit. They you know, they weren't trusted to be fighting side by side with the non-Japanese-American units, the white and the units in in uh this case. And yet, how quickly things changed that eight years later my father was in a place of, you know, limited but some authority over his unit, and he was responsible for his men. So, yeah, I think it's a testament to our nation as well as the armed services, how quickly we can change when the change is necessary and right.

[00:06:39]>> Yeah, I mean, you know, and and I know I've seen a number of uh movies that have depicted Japanese veterans in World War II in the European theater.

[00:06:50]>> Yep.

[00:06:51]>> And I know usually they had uh they had Caucasian officers for the most part, but they did have Japanese NCOs, correct? If I remember correctly.

[00:07:01]>> correct.

[00:07:01]>> That's >> So, you're right, that is a change. But I But I So, I have to ask you though, um these veterans are called Nisei veterans.

[00:07:12]And and I understand that's a Japanese name, but how did that come about? What does that mean?

[00:07:16]>> Well, Nisei simply means second generation.

[00:07:20]>> Ah, okay.

[00:07:21]>> In Japanese, we have different words that describe the generations. Issei is the first generation, Nisei is the second generation, Sansei is the third generation. And Asian cultures tend to count generations differently than Western European cultures. So, in fact, a lot of people from Europe the immigrating uh generation is called the immigrants. And first generation is the first American-born generation.

[00:07:50]>> Okay.

[00:07:51]>> The Japanese counted a little bit differently. If the Issei, the first generation, were the immigrant generation, the Nisei generation is the second generation to live in America, but they were the first generation that were born in America.

[00:08:07]So, these soldiers were the sons of immigrants, of Japanese immigrants. All of them had been born in America and were American citizens by birth, but we called them the second generation cuz they were the second generation to live here.

[00:08:25]>> Yeah, so and I always thought it interesting and and I love military history as a career army guy and you know, veteran myself. Um and I don't want to get too far into this subject, but it was such a contrast of how Japanese-Americans were put in the camp because people, the government was worried about sabotage, and then you turn around and you had Japanese-Americans serving in fighting in units in Europe. And I always thought that was a bit of a contrast, you know, um >> Paul, you are putting your finger right on on the the pulse of the story that we tell. So, let's jump into it, you know, uh December 7th, 1941, the Imperial nation of Japan attacks Pearl Harbor and it thrust the United States into World War II. Yeah. And Japanese-Americans, like my grandparents and like my parents, began to wonder immediately what would happen to us. Would we be treated like the American citizens we were, you know, 2/3 of whom had been born here like my parents. The other third, primarily my grandparents' generation, had lived here 30, 40, 50 years and were American by tradition and by practice, would we be treated like the Americans we were or would we be treated like the enemy because we shared a common ancestry?

[00:09:50]>> Yeah.

[00:09:51]>> Well, we got our answer about 2 months later, February 19th, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066.

[00:10:01]And this creates the underpinnings by which over 120,000 individuals of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast of the United States would be incarcerated in these camps that you referred to.

[00:10:15]And then, about a year into this, I mean, you know, Japanese Americans lost their homes, they lost their jobs, they lost their communities, but most of all what they lost was their sense of place at the American table of citizenship, you know?

[00:10:31]And then, about a year into the incarceration, a year into being behind barbed wire, the army, realizing that the the war was going poorly in Europe and that they needed more men, decided to create a segregated unit of Japanese American soldiers.

[00:10:51]>> Yeah.

[00:10:51]>> First, they started in Hawaii where Japanese Americans weren't rounded up and they started recruiting there. And then, they recruited from the camps, first starting off uh asking for volunteers and then eventually literally drafting these young men saying, "You don't have a choice. You're going to go fight for liberty and justice halfway around the world while their own families are behind barbed wire." So, uh let let me stop here for a second and imagine you're 20 years old, your family has lost everything, you're behind barbed wire, and there are machine uh there there are guard towers with machine guns, not pointed outward to protect you, but pointed inward to control you.

[00:11:33]And then the government says to you, "We want you to go and fight for liberty and justice halfway around the world."

[00:11:40]What do you think you might do?

[00:11:42]>> Oh, yeah. I mean, I would be I would probably be bitter, I'm sure.

[00:11:46]Um confused, bitter, you know, especially since a lot of them they rounded up were American citizens.

[00:11:53]>> Right.

[00:11:54]>> Yeah. So, no, I can completely understand that, yeah.

[00:11:57]>> And and yet, you know, and those feelings were feelings that everyone was having. You know, how can you ask me to go and fight for liberty and justice when I I've had everything taken away from me? How can you treat me like that and and expect me to fight for this country? But these young men, and literally thousands of them, would eventually go off and fight in [clears throat] the 442nd.

[00:12:22]>> Yeah.

[00:12:22]>> They knew in their heart of hearts that they were American.

[00:12:26]>> Yeah.

[00:12:26]>> And they also knew that as Japanese Americans, they were not trusted at that point.

[00:12:32]>> Mhm.

[00:12:32]>> And if they said, "No, I'm not going to go and fight," they would just be proving the hysteria and the stereotype of them as being unworthy as being true.

[00:12:43]>> Yeah.

[00:12:43]>> So, many of them understood that they were fighting two battles. One against the Nazis, you know, the the enemy, of course, of our nation.

[00:12:51]And the other enemy was discrimination and racism.

[00:12:56]And they would go on to become the most highly decorated unit of their size in American military history for their length of service. I mean, if you if you just let that sink in, right? Young men who were imprisoned behind barbed wire become the most highly decorated unit in American history.

[00:13:16]>> Yeah.

[00:13:16]>> Now, unfortunately, the reason why they were so highly decorated is because so many of them were awarded the Purple Heart.

[00:13:23]>> Yeah.

[00:13:24]>> Yeah, the medal you get when you're wounded or killed.

[00:13:27]And uh yet the other thing is that they were awarded eight presidential citations and there were 21 medals of honor bestowed upon Japanese-Americans. So it's an incredible it's an incredible military story because we can delve into the different battles that they had to engage in, but it's also an incredible social history story about what our nation went through during that time.

[00:13:55]And [clears throat] then how 40 years after the war our nation apologized for the way they had treated Japanese-Americans by passing the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

[00:14:08]>> Well, I I have to I have to say and I So there there were approximately, I think reading what I was reading, there were approximately 16,000 Japanese-American veterans.

[00:14:20]Did I read that right?

[00:14:21]>> There were there were actually about 32,000 Japanese-American veterans, but your your number is correct. The 16,000 were the ones who actually shipped out overseas.

[00:14:33]The rest were still in basic training or had been stationed stateside or just hadn't shipped out yet. So the number who saw action both in Europe and there were also a couple thousand that saw action in the Pacific Theater with what was called the Military Intelligence Service. These guys would serve as translators and interpreters and they were in the jungles, you know, working side by side with the Marines in interviewing and translating the POWs that they would capture. They would climb into caves and talk out Japanese soldiers that were holed up into these caves. Those guys did some incredibly brave things also.

[00:15:14]>> Well, you know what that kind of reminds me of was the the code talkers that the American Marines and used over in the Pacific as well and how you know the Native Americans served in a specialty and and you know over in in combat um communicating so the Japanese couldn't understand you know just like these Japanese veterans and I can imagine that was probably challenging for them going over there knowing that if they were captured what the Japanese would probably do to them as well.

[00:15:47]>> Yeah, they would really be seen as traitors and as people that turned against their and there was also the possibility that they could run into a relative on the battlefield.

[00:15:59]>> gosh, yeah.

[00:16:00]>> Because it it was possible that some of them may have had a cousin or may have had a brother that went back to Japan at some earlier time and and there was a possibility of them you know having to fight somebody that they would know and and there are stories of uh our MIS guys in interviewing and translating POWs who they realized had been classmates at one time in their life cuz they had grown up in Japan or so forth. So you know a number of just tremendous human interest stories about the challenges of war.

[00:16:36]>> You know what that brings to mind? The exact same situation uh when I was in Desert Storm. There were some Iraqis that we captured.

[00:16:46]Some of them one of them walked up to us some of our guys and just says, "Hey man, I am so glad you guys are here.

[00:16:55]I'm an American." He came back to Iraq to visit and got caught over there >> Yeah.

[00:17:02]>> and got pulled into Saddam's army and was out in the middle of the desert with all these Iraqi soldiers. So yeah, very very similar type So I know exactly what you're talking about. So I I want to um we're going to take a break in just a mo- a couple of minutes, but and that's when I really want to talk about your organization, but um if you would, take a couple of minutes before we take our break and tell us about your book, Achieving the Impossible Dream.

[00:17:34]>> Well, so, as you can imagine, the incarceration was a a tremendous stressor and something that really affected the Japanese American community for generation for a dec- decades after World War II. And in the '70s, there was a movement that began to say, "Let's uh you know, demand an apology for what happened and let's demand monetary redress payments." And it was referred to as the impossible dream and that it would never happen. You know, so, that's where the book's name, Achieving the Impossible Dream, comes from.

[00:18:11]>> Oh.

[00:18:12]>> And the book is a case study of how we went from being a small distant franchise community that really one of the primary feelings after World War II was a feeling of shame that somehow we had done something wrong to bring this tremendous violation of the Constitution upon ourselves. How did we go from being this small community that didn't have a lot of political power, that felt a sense of shame, to being a community that stood up to the American Congress and to reached out to President Reagan in 1988 and said, "We, you know, deserve an apology and we deserve monetary reparations to go along with that." And get the US House, the US Senate, and the President of the United States to agree. And after the break, I'd be happy to tell you a really interesting story about how the role of the Japanese American veterans made that happen.

[00:19:07]>> Okay, great. Yeah, so, we're going to we are going to take a short break right now and then when we come back we'll pick up with that that story and then we're going to talk a little bit about your organization the Go For Broke National Education Center because I want to make sure we get a chance to share with our audience what you guys are doing. So for those of you that are watching the show hold on and we'll be right back after we hear from our sponsors.

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[00:21:54]>> All right. Welcome back everyone. And you've been watching the W T S N D V Going Solo Veterans Corner. And our guest tonight is Dr. Mitchell Maki, who is the Go For Broke National Education Center president, CEO. And Mitch, you know, as we were talking about before the break, you were going to share a story with us real quick, weren't you?

[00:22:15]>> Okay. So, during World War II when the Japanese American soldiers were serving, there was a a young sergeant named Kazuo Masuda. And he was asked, "Why are you fighting for a country that has imprisoned your family and kept them behind barbed wire, blah blah blah?"

[00:22:34]And his answer, I think, is the answer that most of the soldiers would have given. And he said, "Because this is the only way that I know that my family can have a chance in America."

[00:22:45]>> Yeah.

[00:22:45]>> Uh right or wrong, agree with him or not, the Japanese American soldiers during World War II understood that in 1943, '44, and '45, loyalty needed to be demonstrated in blood. Yeah.

[00:23:01]So, keep that in mind. Now, 40 years later, there is a bill that is working its way through the Congress. A bill that would give Japanese-Americans an apology for the wrongful incarceration and would provide them with a symbolic amount of monetary redress payment.

[00:23:19]It passes the house on September 17th, 1987. So, the impossible dream has taken a significant step forward. Seven months later, it passes the Senate. And we're now only one signature away. One more supporter needs to say, "Yes, let's make this reality." And that, of course, is the president of the United States. And in 1988, the president was none other than Ronald Reagan, right? And there were many of us, and I have to admit, I was one of them, that just thought there's no way Ronald Reagan's going to sign this bill, you know, cuz he it just didn't seem within the sphere of things that he would support.

[00:24:00]But, the thing about Ronald Reagan, right? For those of us who remember him, whether you agreed with his policies or not, most people would agree that Ronald Reagan was a great communicator. You know, he had the ability to tell stories that would touch people's hearts and move them in a certain direction. Well, the question was, what story could we tell President Reagan that would make him understand what happened during World War II on a personal level and make him want to, you know, support it?

[00:24:30]Well, let's go back to that soldier, Kazuo Masuda, who said, "I'm doing this cuz it's the only way I know."

[00:24:36]>> Mhm.

[00:24:37]>> Two [clears throat] weeks after he gave he said that, Sergeant Masuda was killed in battle fighting for his country, the United States of America.

[00:24:46]After the war, his family is released from one of these camps, the one that was in Arizona. And they want to move back to their home in Santa Ana, California.

[00:24:56]And they're met with nothing but hate speech, racial taunts, and threats of bodily harm.

[00:25:03]Then the army realizes this is a PR fiasco. That one of its own fallen heroes his own family can't move back home.

[00:25:11]So they send out a contingent of army officers to have a medal ceremony and present the Distinguished Service Cross to the Masuda family. And they did that in front of in front of their house.

[00:25:22]>> Yeah.

[00:25:23]>> And among those officers that were there was a young captain named Ronald Reagan.

[00:25:30]>> Oh.

[00:25:31]>> Ronald Reagan was at that medal ceremony.

[00:25:33]>> Yeah.

[00:25:34]>> And and that night Ronald Reagan in Santa Ana, California addressed an audience at a United America rally. He addressed an audience and the the parents of Kazuo Masuda were in the audience and he said the blood that has soaked into the sands of a beach is all of one color. America stands unique in the world, the only country not founded on race but on an ideal, on a way.

[00:26:03]Mr. and Mrs. Masuda for what your son, Kazuo, did thanks.

[00:26:11]You can't script a better story than that. That story was relayed to President Reagan.

[00:26:18]And his response was, "I remember what those soldiers did for America."

[00:26:24]>> Yeah.

[00:26:25]>> It wasn't the only reason he signed the bill, but it helped to align the bill with his personal view of what America could be. And so Kazuo Masuda was his words are even more prophetic than he thought that this was the way he was going to make it his family have a chance in America.

[00:26:44]>> Yeah, so so now you know, that's that's really a good story, too. I mean uh I'm learning so much tonight about this.

[00:26:53]So you guys now you guys now have the Go For Broke National Education Center located in LA and and I know that you have a variety of programs there. You know what I mean?

[00:27:09]You you have the the center itself, the National Torch Bearer Program, the Journalism Institute, the Go For Broke movement, you have Legacy Scholarships.

[00:27:22]You know, share with us a little bit here about what all you guys are doing these veterans.

[00:27:28]>> Well Paul, first of all, thank you for doing your homework. You've really researched us well and you know, first of all, we we like to say that we do not think that this is a great Japanese American story. This is a great American story.

[00:27:44]It's the story of the sons and daughters cuz there were young women who served in the WACs and the nurse cadets, but it's the story of young men and women who were the sons and daughters of immigrants who in one generation demonstrated the very best values of what America has to offer.

[00:28:04]courage patriotism, service to others. You know, in the face of discrimination, in the face of racism.

[00:28:12]So in all of our programs, we try to tell this story. We have a permanent exhibit in downtown Los Angeles. We have a traveling exhibit that goes across the country and is in different places. It's currently in Boise, Idaho right now.

[00:28:27]And then so we tell the actual World War II story, the story of the soldiers and what they did. But we put it in the context of these are the values that were demonstrated by Americans during World War II.

[00:28:42]These are the values that are needed by our nation today.

[00:28:47]You know, and I I I think I I think and I hope that your viewers and your listeners would agree that we're struggling right now as a nation.

[00:28:57]You know, that we as a nation are divided. And I cling to the belief that most Americans are still somewhere in the middle. You know, in the sense that we share more common ground than islands of difference. You know, and that we believe in much the same values, you know, of of the equality, of equity, of being a nation of laws. And and yeah, we have different interpretations, and that's all fine and good, but we need to get away from the point of saying because you and I disagree on something, we're now each other's enemies. You know, that's not the case.

[00:29:36]Disagreement is a part of the American tradition, and you know, that's what democracy is based on. And we need to get back to a place where compromise and working together, and finding the common good, and not listening to the extremes either on the right or the left, but working for that common ground. So, you mentioned our torchbearer group, we work with young adults from across the nation in having them learn how to talk about issues. And we don't tell people which side of the issue to take. You know, we but we say it's important for us to talk about these issues, to find where we agree and disagree, and to find that common ground, and to demonstrate courage and patriotism and service to others as we do that. So, in doing so, we hope to take this history lesson, if you will, but keep it alive and apply it in our common our common uh contemporary society.

[00:30:39]>> So, yeah, so, you know, getting that message out is important, of course, especially with you know, what you what you're supporting. Um, but I wanted to ask you something that um, I guess my my question when I was looking at this was your journalism institute.

[00:30:59]So, what what is what is the goal of that? I found that was a little different than what I would expect to see in an organization like this. What what is the goal of that?

[00:31:11]>> Let me take a step back for a second. I I've been in my position 8 years, and I realized that if we simply tell the story as a history lesson, we're going to die on the vine as an organization. You know, it's an 80-year-old story going on 85 years old, and you know, with each passing day and when I talk to high school students about this, they say, "My grandparents weren't even born then." I mean, talk about making me feel old. Their grandparents weren't even born during World War II. We're talking about their great-grandparents or maybe their great-great-grandparents. So, it's ancient history to them. So, the question became, how do we intrigue and and get the attention of young people to share this story, but do it in a way that's meaningful to them.

[00:32:02]The journalism program is just one way that we do that. We work with a a local high school in the downtown Los Angeles area. It's a downtown magnet high school. We work with their journalism class, and we provide them with top-notch journalism exposure. We get LA Times reporters, New York Times reporters, television anchors, blah blah blah, professionals to go in there and talk to them about how you do journalism.

[00:32:30]And then, we also teach them the story of the Japanese-American soldiers and their contribution to America. And their assignment is to take that story and in whatever way they want to do a journalistic piece about the relevance to today.

[00:32:47]So, it's a way of sharing the story, but also giving them life skills and and academic skills that will help them when they go on to college. And not all of these kids are going to become reporters and journalists, but they're all going to know the story and they're all going to know how to write about the story and they're all going to know how to write about things that matter to them. So, in my position, I found it's the challenge for me is yes, I want to tell the story, but I've got to tell it in a way that people will want to hear it and want to use it for the good.

[00:33:20]>> Yeah, that's that's interesting and then also gives those students exposure to some of the professional organizations and people in in the journalism field.

[00:33:30]So, I think that's I think that's pretty good. Well, I >> So, if if I can give you one example of of the outcome. So, we had this one young student, she was a junior in high school and she was half Mexican, half Guatemalan, born and raised here in America, right? And she went through our journalism program, which is small and then because of the piece that she wrote, she was able to use that and get accepted into the USC, University of Southern California, journalism summer program the next year.

[00:34:05]So, it was a stepping stone for her. But as she learned the story, I mean, it wasn't just about journalism for her.

[00:34:12]She really took on the story and said, "Wow, these guys didn't just fight for themselves, they fought for the American ideal, the American promise that, you know, in our country, no one should be judged by their race or their religion or where they come from." And she took her father to our monument and she said, "You know, Poppy, they didn't just fight for themselves. They fought for all of us."

[00:34:35]>> Yeah.

[00:34:35]>> And when I heard that, I thought, "We hit paydirt." You know, here she was moving ahead with her journalism career, which was wonderful, but she also understood the values of this story and the importance of the story for America.

[00:34:51]>> Yeah, that wow, that's that's really something.

[00:34:54]You know, I I uh You guys seem to be doing a lot of important work and and you know, ensuring that these veterans get the recognition that they should have and but uh quite frankly, this far out, I think part of the mission probably is to make sure that they're not forgotten as well. Um >> That's so true.

[00:35:13]>> Yeah, and but I I want to take just a few minutes before we wrap up. We have a few minutes left. Um to talk to our audience just a little bit and make sure they know that if they go to your website, um goforbroke.org, there are a lot of ways that they can support your organization cuz I was looking and I noticed you guys have membership, donations, you have sponsorships, people can donate vehicles like they do for a lot of other organizations.

[00:35:46]Um so, you know, I I saw about I want to say about six, seven, or eight ways for people that can support the organization and donate and uh you know, I I want to encourage our audience while you're here on the air and with the with the website up there, to go take a look at at the goforbroke National Education Center site. There's so many things that they're doing on there, um and there's so many ways that you can donate and help. But I was going to ask you if you would to kind of share with us how the membership works.

[00:36:26]>> Well, the membership is just one vehicle as you mentioned for people to join and to to support us. There are different levels and if they do join then you know, they receive different benefits like admission into our exhibit. They would be able to get our our newsletter as well as our our e-newsletter as well as our physical newsletter and and just really they become supporters of the organization.

[00:36:53]>> Yeah.

[00:36:54]>> One last thing I'd like to share is we're also in the middle of building a brand new building in downtown Los Angeles.

[00:37:01]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:37:01]>> And this building is going to be it what was intended decades ago to just be a small interpretive center of maybe 10,000 square feet is going to be a 330,000 five-story building that's taking up half a city block.

[00:37:18]We will be located in it. We will have about 10,000 square feet for ourselves, but there will also be what we call legacy restaurants and businesses. These are businesses that have been in the Little Tokyo area for generations, restaurants that have been in the area for generations. So it will make the area vibrant in terms of commerce.

[00:37:40]>> Yeah.

[00:37:40]>> But floors two through five will house permanent subsidized low-income housing to help address the homelessness issue in Los Angeles. So these are people who are working, who have an income. They will be paying rent, but they they will get assistance from the county government. So it's somewhat subsidized, but still it's it's a way of supporting families cuz half of our units will be two-bedroom and three-bedroom units so that families can have an affordable place to live in downtown Los Angeles. And so we see this just as being another way of taking that go-for-broke spirit of our our veterans, that spirit of courage and patriotism and service to others and putting it into play uh today in Los Angeles.

[00:38:33]>> Yeah, that's well, that's really impressive.

[00:38:36]Um you know, they just here in our [clears throat] area, they just opened up a three-story, I don't know the square footage, but it's the Museum of the United States Army.

[00:38:46]>> Ah, yes. Yes. Yeah.

[00:38:48]>> And so, when you talk about your building going up there and all that you're going to do for it, I just have one question though before we before we get into the close of the show, you were talking about somebody who donates, you know, his membership and things like that, they can get free admission. I'm wondering, does that also include your memorial over in Japan?

[00:39:12]>> Uh You guys have a memorial >> Don't you guys have a memorial over there or a uh >> No, we uh we don't have uh >> Ah, okay. I thought I thought I was reading somewhere that you guys had one in Japan as well, so >> Oh, if if you can find that article, please share it with me. Maybe I don't know about it.

[00:39:31]>> [laughter] >> Yeah, I'll I'll take a look again, so um but no, that's okay. Um well, you know, Mitch, I got to tell you, it's it's been great having you on the show to share this story and you know, this is all new to me, so I'm learning so much and I'm sure our audience is too and you know, I want to thank you for what you're doing with this group, but I want to ask you one more question before we close the show. If you had one message to share with the audience, what would it be?

[00:40:09]Did your picture freeze on me or you there?

[00:40:11]>> No, no, I'm I'm deep in thought.

[00:40:13]>> [laughter] >> I wasn't sure.

[00:40:16]>> Right. right. I I have so many messages that I would want to say but that I think I I think what it comes down to in my heart of hearts is that we are a we are a nation of many different people who have come to this country and that diversity makes us stronger.

[00:40:37]And this is one story, the story we tell is one story of the strength of that diversity and and that we we as a nation need to cherish that and and cherish, and I know I sound like a broken record with this, but cherish the common ground that we share.

[00:40:57]That we we are a beacon for the world and and it's important that we not forget that.

[00:41:05]>> Yeah, no, that's actually a very good point. Very good point, especially, you know, today with all the things going on.

[00:41:13]I I you know, I just want to thank you so much for taking the time to to come on and for the audience out there, you need to go take a look at this website and see what all they have and what all they're doing out there. There's so much there.

[00:41:29]goforbroke.org, there it is on the screen, and go on there and take a look at the various support mechanisms that they have in place on the website as well.

[00:41:39]Um so, please do that. And Mitch, like I said, I'm going to circle around back to you because I'd love to have you come back on and share your father's story.

[00:41:50]>> I would love to do that and certainly there are so many stories I didn't even get to share today. So, um I would be happy to come back anytime.

[00:41:59]>> Okay, great. Well, thank you so much for appearing on the show and we look forward to having you back again.

[00:42:06]>> Thank you, Paul.

[00:42:07]>> And for our audience out there, of Of as we share information at the end of each show that that uh uh we try to at least hope that's going to be useful to you and helpful. Um I'm going to continue on for tonight's show and we're going to put up in our resource page the goforbroke.org website information and the information about the National Education Center.

[00:42:31]You'll find it on our resource page um on our website where my show is. Uh hope you'll get a chance to visit it if you don't get a chance to do it this evening or in the next day or so. Take a look, see what you can do to help this organization because they're doing great work. So, thank you for spending some time with us tonight. You've been watching the WGSN DB Going Solo Veterans Show on the new streaming network.com and for your veterans out there, as always, we want to thank you and your families for your service and support and we hope to see all of you on our next show.