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The Legacy of Bob Matsui
Personal reflections
on the Congressman's role as a legislator, a Democratic leader, and a
Japanese American Sansei
By Paul Igasaki, IMDiversity Featured Columnist
 January
2004 - I know with the sudden and untimely passing of Congressman Bob
Matsui there will be many discussing his contributions, some by people
who were closer to him or knew him better than I. I met him when I was a
law student and he was a Sacramento City Councilman, and supported his
campaign for Congress in 1978. I worked with him when I was a civil
rights lobbyist and served on his campaign staff when he explored a race
for the U.S. Senate.
Bob was a highly respected member of Congress. He was a national leader
on issues like social security and trade, but he was steadfast in his
support of civil rights and programs to protect the poorest and weakest
in our society. He explored opportunities for higher office, but it was
in the House of Representatives that his greatest talents found
expression. He was a leader in Congress supporting issues of free trade
and protecting the social security system. President Clinton relied upon
him to carry his positions to Congress in both of these areas.
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi asked him to head the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee this past year and while the Democrats
didn’t win a majority, he dramatically increased their fundraising. Bob
had a rare talent for that and although I did fundraising for his
campaign, Bob came to that difficult task easily. I had hoped that his
party’s fortunes would improve so that he could show his legislative
leadership as the chair of a major committee in Congress, but his death
at a relatively young age has deprived the nation of that opportunity.
I am sure people like President Clinton and Leader Pelosi will speak to
his considerable legislative skill. As a Japanese American and a Sansei
(third generation Japanese American), I want to address what he meant to
me and my generation in the community. He was the first of our
generation to achieve election to Congress. He grew up in an environment
in which Japanese American self-esteem was deeply affected by the
imprisonment of our community during World War II. I remember him once
describing how he and a friend once talked about how they wished they
weren’t Japanese. That discussion resonated with me. How many of my
generation at one time or another confronted the psychological burden of
the wrongful incarceration, or the ongoing burden of feeling the need to
prove one’s Americanism? He worked with others in Congress to do
something about that, with the Supreme Court and U.S. history still
holding that the concept of racial suspicion justified wholesale
internment. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 did more than any other act
since World War II to remove the unjustified mantle of Japanese American
guilt and, more importantly than that, sent a message that America could
be wrong and was willing to correct that wrong even decades later. That
legacy will, I hope, continue to counter the irrational tendency to
target those whose ethnic or racial roots coincide with our enemies of
the moment, a tendency that runs against our most precious national
principles.
A Friend to Business and Civil Rights
While civil rights are the focus of my career, Bob, like most Sanseis,
sought to make a difference in areas that were not based on his own
heritage. Bob was a great friend to American business, most especially
the agriculture native to his home in the Sacramento Valley and to
technology, the engine that will continue to drive our nation’s economic
future. His steadfast belief in free trade transcended his Democratic
credentials and found recognition when President Clinton pursued the
North American Free Trade Agreement and sought Bob’s stewardship to win
support in Congress.
While Bob had always been a respected and loyal Democrat, he defined his
positions independently. He was always a defender of business and of
free trade. I remember his strong stance against the protectionism of
the Japanese rice industry in the face of the American rice growers,
many centered in the Sacramento region. His strong support by Sacramento
business leaders went back to his days in the City Council and his own
law practice operated out of small Victorian house in downtown
Sacramento. At the same time, while Democratic, his district -- still
rooted in its days as a farm town -- is by no means a bastion of urban
liberalism. Yet Bob was always a staunch supporter of civil
rights, including that of gay and lesbian Americans, and also of social
programs that would serve the poorest or weakest in our society. His
advocacy for seniors on social security issues from his powerful
position on the Ways and Means Committee is legendary, and neither
Democratic nor Republican administrations were immune to his efforts.
Indeed, the talk in this town recently was of the certainty that
President Bush’s proposed Social Security overhaul would receive Bob
Matsui’s serious scrutiny on the Hill. I am certain that his name will
come up as that issue unfolds.
Filling His Seat, Filling His Shoes
Bob brought a serious and thoughtful approach to government and to
those of all political affiliations he added respect to a career in
public service. In the mainstream, discussions in the wake of Bob’s
passing will be of who and how his seat will be filled. But for Japanese
Americans and other Asian Pacific Americans the issue is more who will
fill his shoes. For all the respect he won beyond our community, much of
what he showed the world was of Japanese American values as translated
by our generation. Few were as successful as Bob in winning that
respect. The “quiet, hardworking professionalism” that will be spoken of
in many of Bob’s memorials are the values given us by our grandparents
and parents, tempered by immigration, civil rights abuses and many years
“in between” other larger communities. As Sansei approach retirement
age, mostly born or at least raised following World War II, our lives
and our community continue to be defined in many ways by the war.
Japanese Americans struggled far beyond the immigrant generation to try
to prove their loyalty and citizenship even if they had it legally. The
relocation proved that the law would only protect us up to a point.
Sanseis played a major role in the campaign for Japanese American
redress as we learned from the civil rights movement and showed our
patriotism in a new way defined by the era that we grew up in. Some got
over the reticence to stand out and did things like enter politics or
acting, but many were still more comfortable in less visible
professional roles. Bob represented us well without having to say so.
Now, with Bob’s passing, we can reflect both what we have lost as a
community and as a nation, but also what we need desperately. I remember
Bob talking frequently about how few Asian Pacific Americans are in the
pipeline behind him. Few Japanese Americans, certainly, due to some
extent to the community’s limited growth, but few Asians of all
backgrounds, as well. Some that are coming forward from the Korean,
Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese and Hmong communities provide hope. But we
need more, and perhaps the greatest memorial we can erect to Bob’s
career in public service is to take the risk and seek to serve and, just
as importantly, to support the qualified people from our community who
share our political values with our encouragement, money, energies and
votes.
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Paul Igasaki
