In 1942, Norman Mineta and his family were forced from their home in San Jose, California and into an internment camp in Wyoming. The Minetas were among tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans subjected to internment in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor
Mineta left the camp in 1945 and went on to become the first non-white mayor of San Jose. Then, as a congressman from California, he sponsored legislation that paved the way for reparations for thousands of Japanese-Americans. And as George W. Bush's Secretary of Transport, he oversaw the FAA's response to 9/11 from a bunker under the White House.
DecodeDC host Jimmy Williams interviewed Norman Mineta for episode 137: The Supreme Court's Loaded Gun. Enjoy the great stories that didn't make it into that episode.
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