Oral History with Bob Shimabukuro
This oral history with Bob Shimabukuro was conducted by John D. Pai on September 19, 2001 for The Wing’s 2001 exhibition, From Awareness to Healing: AIDS in the APA Community.
The exhibit featured part of the AIDS quilt project. In the interview, Bob Shimabukuro reflects on his brother, the AIDS epidemic and its consequences. Bob began the Asian Pacific AIDS Council under People of Color against AIDS Network to address the lack of education on the subject in the community.
“In effect that was when I started thinking that maybe we should have some kind of AIDS education in the Asian American community because there weren’t too many -- in fact there weren't any -- AIDS materials I read that I thought we could use. It just didn't seem relevant to the community.”
How does the present pandemic differ or is similar to the AIDS epidemic? What may be the consequences of this one? Will there be a memorial to those lost?