Interviews

1. Incarceration, Deportation, and Lawyers

2. On Challenging Institutions

3. Proud to be Japanese Americans

4. The White House Will Have to Wait

5. Nikkei Pioneers in the Legal Field

6. “…Put Me In A Cage”

7. Preserving Manzanar-Chutzpah and the DWP

8. Rising Up To A Challenge

9. Congressional Hearings

10. “A Low Tolerance For Injustice…”

11. Pop and Balls

12. Fifty Years and Going Strong

13. Message to Aspiring Japanese American Lawyers

Ochi,Rose

(1938-2020) Japanese American attorney and civil rights activist

Fifty Years and Going Strong

Being in the Mayor's office, they want you to be out there and although I'm not a liaison. I was, I had a kind of a more function of criminal justice but because I liked the community, so I would spend time out there. It was never, never was a burden. And today, today I'm "retired" for a while and I - my husband was kind of getting upset at me because my 50th wedding anniversary is right around the corner and I was running around doing Tuna Canyon. And, you know, I hadn't finished all the invitations and he says people are going to think their after thoughts and he was getting mad at me. Anyway, everything's under control. We're going to make it to 50.

communities families

Date: July 17, 2013

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Sean Hamamoto

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

Interviewee Bio

Rose Matsui Ochi was born in East Los Angeles, California on December 15, 1938. Following the outbreak of World War II, young Ms. Ochi’s family was rounded up to live in the horse stables of the Santa Anita racetracks before being railroaded to Rohwer, one of America’s concentration camps for Japanese Americans at the time. Upon release, her parents were subjected to deportation, but were rescued by civil rights lawyers. Her family’s tragic experience taught her about injustices and about the power to right wrongs.

In order to fight for rights and social justice, Ms. Ochi decided to go into law. After earning a B.A. from University of California, Los Angeles and M.S. from California State University, Los Angeles, she earned a J.D. from Loyola Law School. She began her career as a ‘Reggie’, a poverty lawyer, at U.S.C. Western Center on Law and Poverty and served as the co-counsel of record in Serrano v. Priest, the landmark educational law reform case. Ms. Ochi has since served on the state bar and Legal Services Commission, has worked as a Disciplinary Referee, and was the first AA Board of Trustees member for the LA County Bar Association.

Recently, she helped to rescue Tuna Canyon WWII Detention Camp by getting Council approval for Historic Designation. She passed away in December 2020. (December 2020)

*This is one of the main projects completed by The Nikkei Community Internship (NCI) Program intern each summer, which the Japanese American Bar Association and the Japanese American National Museum have co-hosted.