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

Common Cause

As Asian Americans, growing up in that that era, there you know we identified a lot, for example on the Westside here, since most of the neighborhoods were Black or Asian, our high school friends were Blacks and Asians. And we identified with, you know, our brothers and sisters in the African American community and the movement. A lot of people who grew up on the Eastside, they related more to the Chicanos, but again, you know we developed bonds, with peoples that who were our neighbors, and learned from each other about our own histories, and each other’s histories and I think we found that, we had a lot in common and ...the kinds of things that we want to accomplish to build a better world. We were all shared by all of us.

African Americans Asian Americans Chicanos communities identity Mexican Americans

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)