If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you may already be familiar with Japanese-American Norman Mineta, especially if you fly out of the San Jose Airport, (which was officially renamed in November 2001 as the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport). Mineta was born-and-raised in San Jose. National Public Radio has a 17 minute interview with Mineta this week, “Norm Mineta on Pioneering Career, America’s Future“:
“In 2001, Norm Mineta made history as the first Asian-American to serve in a presidential cabinet, and bears the distinction of being the longest-serving U.S. Secretary of Transportation. The trailblazing public servant talks about his road to White House leadership, leading the nation through acts of terror on Sept. 11, and his plans for the future.”
Mineta was the first Asian American mayor of a major U.S. city - San Jose, served 10 terms in Congress (20 years!), became the first Asian American cabinent member - Secretary of Commerce under the Clinton administration and only Democrat in George W. Bush’s cabinent, Secretary of Transportation (until he retired in 2006). As Secretary of Transportation, he is most known for his decision on 9/11 to ground all civilian aircraft traffic for the first time in U.S. history. In the interview, Mineta mentions how President Bush was concerned about racial profiling post-9/11 and referenced to others that Mineta had been a Japanese internee during World War II (Mineta was interned at the Heart Mountain internment camp near Cody, Wyoming.)
To be honest, I didn’t realize how ground breaking Mineta’s career has been until writing this post. Mineta has certainly paved the way for many Asian American politicians, including current Representative Mike Honda’s (current vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee)
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