Entrevistas

1. On the Impact of the Camp Experience

2. Coming into Japanese Culture and Heritage

3. “I had no idea about studying law…”

4. “How did I end up going to law school?”

5. Opening Up Shop in Little Tokyo

6. The Other Two JA women lawyers in Los Angeles—Chiyoko Sakamoto and Madge Watai

7. On Generational Differences in JABA’s Early Years

8. The Founding of JABA: Getting Judges Appointed

9. “If I hadn’t gone to that meeting…”

10. On Hon. Edward Kakita and JABA’s early efforts

11. JABA: On Engaging Students and Community

12. On the Importance of Role Models

13. On Getting the Call from J. Anthony Kline

14. On Being a New Judge and a New Mother

15. On Justice Todd’s Daughter, Mia Doi Todd

16. On Justice Todd’s Involvement with the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center

17. On Working in the Appellate Court

Todd,Kathryn Doi

(n. 1942) La primera juez asiático americana

“If I hadn’t gone to that meeting…”

Ed Kakita and Rose Ochi had a plan to go to Sacramento to meet with the governor’s appointments secretary, who was J. Anthony Kline, Tony Kline, who’s now on the Court of Appeal in San Francisco. And it was their purpose to go and tout the Japanese Americans who were ready, willing, able, and wanted to be on the court or be elevated. And it turned out at the last minute that Rose couldn’t go, so Ed asked if I would go with him, and…so I did. And it was at that point I met Tony Kline at this meeting. We talked about these people who we thought should be appointed or elevated, and Tony Kline told us that Governor Jerry Brown was very, very interested in appointing minorities to the bench. And they were looking around the state for people to appoint. And, he said, that they were having a hard time. First of all, you know, in those days, there was a Municipal Court and a Superior Court. To be on the Municipal Court, you had to have five years as a lawyer, and to be on the Superior Court, you needed ten. So he mentioned that they were having a hard time finding people, not only who were qualified but who were interested in doing this. So that was an interesting revelation for me to learn this. It had never, ever occurred to me to seek a judgeship before I heard that. And I thought, well, maybe I would have an opportunity to be appointed. And that’s basically the reason that I put an application in. If I hadn’t gone to that meeting and hadn’t been in that conversation…and also, Ed Kakita was very encouraging [to me].

derecho jueces Tribunal Superior de California

Fecha: July 10, 2012

Zona: California, US

Entrevista: Lawrence Lan

País: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum; Japanese American Bar Association

Entrevista

La juez Kathryn Doi Todd nació el 14 de enero de 1942, un mes antes de que el Presidente Franklin D. Roosevelt firmara la Orden Ejecutiva 9066, por lo cual ella y su familia fueron internados en el campo de concentración Heart Mountain en Wyoming y en Tule Lake al norte de California.

Luego de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, su familia regresó a Los Ángeles, en donde ella creció. Todd se graduó en la Escuela Secundaria Los Ángeles en 1959 y continuó sus estudios en la Universidad de Stanford, en donde obtuvo un título en historia en 1963. Finalmente, fue a la Escuela de Leyes Loyola, en donde recibió su título en leyes en 1970.

La carrera jurídica de Todd empezó cuando abrió su propio bufete en Little Tokio de Los Ángeles, en una época cuando solamente había tres abogadas mujeres americano japonesas trabajando en Los Ángeles. A mediados de los años setenta, Todd y varios otros juristas americano japoneses se reunieron para fundar la Barra de Abogados Americano Japonesa (Japanese American Bar Association o JABA), cuyo objetivo al inicio fue incrementar la representación americano japonesa en los tribunales.

En 1978, el gobernador Jerry Brown nombró a Todd en el Tribunal Municipal del Condado de Los Ángeles, otorgándole la distinción de ser la primera mujer juez asiático americana. Tres años más tarde, en 1981, Brown la ascendió al Tribunal de la Corte Superior del Condado de Los Ángeles. En el 2000, el gobernador Gray Davis nombró a Todd a la Corte de Apelaciones del Segundo Distrito de California, Segunda División (California Second District Court of Appeal, Division Two), en donde actualmente sirve como juez asociada. (Julio de 2012)