Rose Ochi was a powerful and widely respected legal mind who spent her career advocating for civil rights. When she died late last year, the loss was felt by the many she inspired to follow her path, including myself.
At a very early age, Ochi and her family faced the devastating cruelty of being imprisoned at the Rohwer concentration camp in Arkansas, alongside tens of thousands of other Japanese Americans during World War II. But, instead of embittering her to a world that would persecute her for her race, this injustice catalyzed Ochi’s passion to create and advocate for policies that built a more just and equitable society, so that others would not have to experience what she did. In fact, Ochi went on to play a key role in securing a federal apology and redress for Japanese American detention camp survivors. And, because of her crucial work with the Manzanar Committee, the former California internment camp was designated as a National Historic Site, so that the injustices done to the Japanese American community would not be forgotten or erased.
Despite her childhood experience — or maybe because of it — she continued to break barrier after barrier. This set Ochi on a long and accomplished career of not just fighting injustices, but healing them. She was selected to serve on President Jimmy Carter’s Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy, through which she advocated for immigration reform and helped to secure a pathway to citizenship for thousands of undocumented immigrants. And she worked with President Bill Clinton’s administration on drug policy and race relations. Ochi also served in multiple roles for the city of Los Angeles, where she helped to reduce gang violence, supported programs for at-risk youth, designed successful community policing methods, and even increased the number of women and officers of color in the Los Angeles Police Department.