Interviews

1. Where did the Name Gidra Originate

2. Struggle and Activism

3. Gidra's Editorial Process

4. Gidra - Community Newspaper

5. Gidra Collaborations

6. Common Cause

7. Gidra's Contributors

8. Gidra's Content

9. Content Conflict

10. Camp Experiences

11. Cincip

12. Staff and Struggles

Murase,Mike

Community activist

Struggle and Activism

At that time there was a slogan from China saying “Masses Are The Makers of History,” and we really believe that, that it wasn’t about you know Nixon or whoever, that famous people, politicians, that determined the course of history. But it was the large masses of people, the nameless, faceless people, who stood up and changed society, changed things for the better.

So we wanted to reflect that in our paper too, in a small way and, and let people speak not so much in an academic, cerebral way, but to just in whatever form and way that they wanted to express themselves sort of, you know I think like some of the poetry, very poignant, strong, conveys a lot of feelings of the experience of young people at that time.

communities identity

Date: September 29, 2011

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Kris Kuromitsu, John Esaki

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Mike Murase--attorney, activist, administrator, writer and photographer--has been involved in human services, social change, education, government and politics for over 40 years. As an undergraduate at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), he was a co-founder of the Asian American Studies Center and later taught ethnic studies at UCLA, University of Southern California and California State University at Long Beach.

Mike’s roots in the Asian American communities are deep. He was a part of the core group who founded Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC), a social service and community economic development agency serving Little Tokyo and greater Japanese American community throughout Los Angeles. Mike served as the board president for first 5 years. He also advocated for members of Japanese Welfare Rights Organization, Little Tokyo People’s Rights Organization and National Coalition for Redress & Reparations (NCRR), and authored Little Tokyo: One Hundred Year History.

In 2006, Mike returned to LTSC to join its management team and currently is Director of Service Programs. (August 2012)