Noriko Sawada, called Nikki, was born in Gardena, California on Feb. 11, 1923, the only child of Asahiko Sawada (1871-1955) and Ura Sakata Sawada (1882-1949), Japanese immigrants. Her father’s death certificate listed his occupation as “Retired Rancher,” although Nikki referred to her parents as “farmers.” Actually they operated a truck garden, growing vegetables and strawberries, crops that required stoop labor. As soon as she was able, Nikki worked alongside her parents and the Chicano field hands. Growing up in Orange County, she attended Garden Grove High School, where she took business courses, and then a year at Santa Ana Junior College, September 1940 to June 1941, where she took both home economic courses (to please her mother) and liberal arts courses. In May 1942, the family was sent by the U.S. government to Poston, Arizona, one of the camps where more than 100,000 American citizens and resident aliens of Japanese ancestry were interned during World War II. At the camp she became a secretary to the construction engineer. This experience of being put in what she called “a concentration camp,” she later told reporter Catherine Bigelow, “inspired her lifetime commitment to activism.” (San Francisco Chronicle, 9/23/01) In December 1944, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to detain any persons without charging them of committing a specific crime and without trial. In March 1945, Nikki left the Colorado River Relocation Project in Poston.

After her release, Nikki lived in the Bay Area. She worked in the San Francisco WRA office and eventually found jobs as a secretary to support herself and her parents. During this time, she was a member of United Office and Professional Workers of America-CIO, Local 34, Berkeley, and she leafleted to organize white collar workers into the CIO. Also, according to labor journalist and historian, David Selvin, she became involved in the Inter-racial Committee in Berkeley. In January 1947, she was with the American Council on Race Relations as secretary to the Regional Director.

In 1948, Nikki took a job in the law office of Gladstein, Anderson, Sawyer, and Edises. Later she managed the offices first of San Francisco radical lawyer, Charles R. Garry, and subsequently for Benjamin Dreyfus who introduced her to Harry Bridges at a party in the fall of 1958.

Her marriage to Harry Bridges in December 1958 caused a stir in Nevada, which led to the nullification of the state’s miscegenation laws. Their suit against the state of Nevada for refusing to issue them a marriage license was widely publicized and helped repeal miscegenation laws throughout the country, finally ending all state laws with a decision in 1964 by the U.S. Supreme Court. When receiving the 1988 Humanitarian Award by the Women’s Concerns Committee of the Japanese American Citizens League, she said of her marriage to Harry Bridges, the internationally known labor leader: “Asian women who marry Caucasian big shots [are made to understand] that they have no identity of their own, that having bagged an important man, they have reached the top.” To survive, she said, “the woman must educate herself, her spouse and society to the contrary, an ongoing struggle.”

Nikki continued working in the law office until 1960 when their daughter, Kathy, was born. She stayed busy as a housewife and mother until 1972 when she went back to work as an administrative assistant to Dr. Arlene Kaplan Daniels, Director of the Center for the Study of Women in Society, Institute for Scientific Analysis in San Francisco. In early 1975, Nikki became Director of the Center for Employment Studies at the Institute but within six months the project ended for lack of funding. Researchers studying unemployment in the 1970s may find useful her files on this project including interviews with union leaders and employment project summaries.

For years the Bridges lived at 35 Kronquest Court in San Francisco. A long-time member of the household was Betty L. Rogers, better known as Aunt Betty, the widow of a cousin of HRB’s second wife. When Betty died in 1982, Nikki redid her rooms on the lower level of the house for her own writing area. By this time, she had published and was working on her short stories.

At age fifty, Nikki began to write, taking courses in creative writing at San Francisco State and other places. At this time she wrote that she “came to terms with my own identity,” the duality of being Japanese and raised in the American society. (1986 interview by Eric Saul for National Japanese American Historical Society) In 1977, her epic poem on the internment experience, “To Be or Not to Be; There’s no such option” won first place in the Rafu Shimpo poetry write-off, her first writing honor. This poem became a classic among Asian-American writers as well as the general public. In 1980 under her birth name, she published a story in Ms., for which she won a national journalism award. She published another piece in Harper’s, which later appeared in the Reader’s Digest in condensed form. Her collection at the Labor Archives contains many unpublished short stories, often with semi-autobiographical story lines. The copyright of these remains with her daughter, and these writings may not be copied, published, or quoted without the permission from Kathy Wiggins.

Nikki traveled to Japan at age eight with her mother. As an adult she visited in 1958, 1972, and 1975, to get “in touch with my roots,” she recalled. Through the years she accompanied HRB in his business travels to Hawaii, Canada, Cuba, USSR, Romania, Greece, England, and Ecuador. After HRB’s death in 1990, she traveled to Europe and other places with friends.

Beginning in 1980, Nikki worked with other Japanese Americans to get a bill passed in Congress to have America apologize for unlawful imprisonment during World War II and to pay redress to each of those interned. This bill, called the Civil Liberties Act of 1985, became law and was signed by President Ronald Reagan on August 10, 1988. It apologized for the internment and authorized payment of $20,000 to each camp survivor. However, it was not until October 1991 that Nikki received what she called “a wimpy letter from President H. W. Bush” and a check for $20,000. Herb Caen, the San Francisco Chronicle’s satirist, wrote in his August 9, 1988 column: “Harry Bridges’ wife, Nikki, who spent the World War II years in an internment camp, says she’s going to spend her redress money hiring a Caucasian gardener with a college degree.” This is a good example of Nikki’s wit, a trait her friends often refer to when describing her.

Throughout her adult life, Nikki was active in social justice and anti-war movements. She was particularly proud of her work in San Francisco as Bay Area chairperson of the Jeanette Rankin Brigade, an early anti-Vietnam War group, organized in 1968.

The Nikki Bridges Flynn Collection shows her strong support for Asian-American women writers and artists, many of whom visited her in San Francisco and sought her help in promoting their careers. Among these with whom NSB had correspondence were Joy Kogawa, Hisaye Yamamoto, and Wakako Yamauchi.

In 1990 as a member of the Women’s Exhibit Committee of the National Japanese American Historical Society, she helped prepare an exhibit at the Oakland Museum titled Strength and Diversity: Japanese American Women, 1889-1990. In an oral history recorded for the exhibit, Nikki told her mother’s story of being a picture bride, marrying long-distance after an exchange of letters and photos.

Nikki was an outgoing person who often joined groups and served on advisory boards. In the 1980s, Nikki edited the monthly newsletter for the Center for Japanese American Studies. She was also an active member of the Japanese American Democratic Club, Golden Gate Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Beginning in the 1980s, she spoke on radio, TV, films, and before community groups about being a Japanese American woman and especially about her experience in the World War II camps in Arizona. She frequently addressed students from elementary school to graduate school and was sought after as a compelling speaker. In 1993, she joined the Advisory Board of the Labor Archives.

Nikki was always interested in health matters and earned a certificate for the practice of Reiki, a Japanese method of healing by the laying on of hands. She was a board member of the American Heart Association and later of the Mental Health Association of San Francisco. Her own medical history was extensive. In November 1984, she suffered a heart attack, followed in 1992 by a stroke, and in 1994 she had an emergency quadruple bypass. In 1985, she was diagnosed with a late on-set asthma condition. Following her interest in health, she took a class on Anthropology of Women at San Francisco State University in 1977, and the collection includes her research notes and papers on women’s health.

Nikki nursed Harry Bridges through his long illness, setting aside her own writing to help him organize his thoughts for an autobiography. Failing in this, they sought out historians and in 1985 chose Robert Cherny of San Francisco State to accomplish the task.

After Harry’s death in 1990, Nikki began writing again as well as being active in many civic organizations. On May Day 1994, she married Ed Flynn, past president of the Pacific Maritime Association, the organization that represents shipowners and the man who sat across the negotiating table from Harry Bridges. Noriko Sawada Bridges Flynn died on February 7, 2003 at her home in Pescadero. Her husband and daughter held a memorial service on February 18, 2003, when her ashes were scattered in the San Francisco Bay. Noriko Sawada, called Nikki, was born in Gardena, California on Feb. 11, 1923, the only child of Asahiko Sawada (1871-1955) and Ura Sakata Sawada (1882-1949), Japanese immigrants. Her father’s death certificate listed his occupation as “Retired Rancher,” although Nikki referred to her parents as “farmers.” Actually they operated a truck garden, growing vegetables and strawberries, crops that required stoop labor. As soon as she was able, Nikki worked alongside her parents and the Chicano field hands. Growing up in Orange County, she attended Garden Grove High School, where she took business courses, and then a year at Santa Ana Junior College, September 1940 to June 1941, where she took both home economic courses (to please her mother) and liberal arts courses. In May 1942, the family was sent by the U.S. government to Poston, Arizona, one of the camps where more than 100,000 American citizens and resident aliens of Japanese ancestry were interned during World War II. At the camp she became a secretary to the construction engineer. This experience of being put in what she called “a concentration camp,” she later told reporter Catherine Bigelow, “inspired her lifetime commitment to activism.” (San Francisco Chronicle, 9/23/01) In December 1944, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to detain any persons without charging them of committing a specific crime and without trial. In March 1945, Nikki left the Colorado River Relocation Project in Poston.

After her release, Nikki lived in the Bay Area. She worked in the San Francisco WRA office and eventually found jobs as a secretary to support herself and her parents. During this time, she was a member of United Office and Professional Workers of America-CIO, Local 34, Berkeley, and she leafleted to organize white collar workers into the CIO. Also, according to labor journalist and historian, David Selvin, she became involved in the Inter-racial Committee in Berkeley. In January 1947, she was with the American Council on Race Relations as secretary to the Regional Director.

In 1948, Nikki took a job in the law office of Gladstein, Anderson, Sawyer, and Edises. Later she managed the offices first of San Francisco radical lawyer, Charles R. Garry, and subsequently for Benjamin Dreyfus who introduced her to Harry Bridges at a party in the fall of 1958.

Her marriage to Harry Bridges in December 1958 caused a stir in Nevada, which led to the nullification of the state’s miscegenation laws. Their suit against the state of Nevada for refusing to issue them a marriage license was widely publicized and helped repeal miscegenation laws throughout the country, finally ending all state laws with a decision in 1964 by the U.S. Supreme Court. When receiving the 1988 Humanitarian Award by the Women’s Concerns Committee of the Japanese American Citizens League, she said of her marriage to Harry Bridges, the internationally known labor leader: “Asian women who marry Caucasian big shots [are made to understand] that they have no identity of their own, that having bagged an important man, they have reached the top.” To survive, she said, “the woman must educate herself, her spouse and society to the contrary, an ongoing struggle.”

Nikki continued working in the law office until 1960 when their daughter, Kathy, was born. She stayed busy as a housewife and mother until 1972 when she went back to work as an administrative assistant to Dr. Arlene Kaplan Daniels, Director of the Center for the Study of Women in Society, Institute for Scientific Analysis in San Francisco. In early 1975, Nikki became Director of the Center for Employment Studies at the Institute but within six months the project ended for lack of funding. Researchers studying unemployment in the 1970s may find useful her files on this project including interviews with union leaders and employment project summaries.

For years the Bridges lived at 35 Kronquest Court in San Francisco. A long-time member of the household was Betty L. Rogers, better known as Aunt Betty, the widow of a cousin of HRB’s second wife. When Betty died in 1982, Nikki redid her rooms on the lower level of the house for her own writing area. By this time, she had published and was working on her short stories.

At age fifty, Nikki began to write, taking courses in creative writing at San Francisco State and other places. At this time she wrote that she “came to terms with my own identity,” the duality of being Japanese and raised in the American society. (1986 interview by Eric Saul for National Japanese American Historical Society) In 1977, her epic poem on the internment experience, “To Be or Not to Be; There’s no such option” won first place in the Rafu Shimpo poetry write-off, her first writing honor. This poem became a classic among Asian-American writers as well as the general public. In 1980 under her birth name, she published a story in Ms., for which she won a national journalism award. She published another piece in Harper’s, which later appeared in the Reader’s Digest in condensed form. Her collection at the Labor Archives contains many unpublished short stories, often with semi-autobiographical story lines. The copyright of these remains with her daughter, and these writings may not be copied, published, or quoted without the permission from Kathy Wiggins.

Nikki traveled to Japan at age eight with her mother. As an adult she visited in 1958, 1972, and 1975, to get “in touch with my roots,” she recalled. Through the years she accompanied HRB in his business travels to Hawaii, Canada, Cuba, USSR, Romania, Greece, England, and Ecuador. After HRB’s death in 1990, she traveled to Europe and other places with friends.

Beginning in 1980, Nikki worked with other Japanese Americans to get a bill passed in Congress to have America apologize for unlawful imprisonment during World War II and to pay redress to each of those interned. This bill, called the Civil Liberties Act of 1985, became law and was signed by President Ronald Reagan on August 10, 1988. It apologized for the internment and authorized payment of $20,000 to each camp survivor. However, it was not until October 1991 that Nikki received what she called “a wimpy letter from President H. W. Bush” and a check for $20,000. Herb Caen, the San Francisco Chronicle’s satirist, wrote in his August 9, 1988 column: “Harry Bridges’ wife, Nikki, who spent the World War II years in an internment camp, says she’s going to spend her redress money hiring a Caucasian gardener with a college degree.” This is a good example of Nikki’s wit, a trait her friends often refer to when describing her.

Throughout her adult life, Nikki was active in social justice and anti-war movements. She was particularly proud of her work in San Francisco as Bay Area chairperson of the Jeanette Rankin Brigade, an early anti-Vietnam War group, organized in 1968.

The Nikki Bridges Flynn Collection shows her strong support for Asian-American women writers and artists, many of whom visited her in San Francisco and sought her help in promoting their careers. Among these with whom NSB had correspondence were Joy Kogawa, Hisaye Yamamoto, and Wakako Yamauchi.

In 1990 as a member of the Women’s Exhibit Committee of the National Japanese American Historical Society, she helped prepare an exhibit at the Oakland Museum titled Strength and Diversity: Japanese American Women, 1889-1990. In an oral history recorded for the exhibit, Nikki told her mother’s story of being a picture bride, marrying long-distance after an exchange of letters and photos.

Nikki was an outgoing person who often joined groups and served on advisory boards. In the 1980s, Nikki edited the monthly newsletter for the Center for Japanese American Studies. She was also an active member of the Japanese American Democratic Club, Golden Gate Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Beginning in the 1980s, she spoke on radio, TV, films, and before community groups about being a Japanese American woman and especially about her experience in the World War II camps in Arizona. She frequently addressed students from elementary school to graduate school and was sought after as a compelling speaker. In 1993, she joined the Advisory Board of the Labor Archives.

Nikki was always interested in health matters and earned a certificate for the practice of Reiki, a Japanese method of healing by the laying on of hands. She was a board member of the American Heart Association and later of the Mental Health Association of San Francisco. Her own medical history was extensive. In November 1984, she suffered a heart attack, followed in 1992 by a stroke, and in 1994 she had an emergency quadruple bypass. In 1985, she was diagnosed with a late on-set asthma condition. Following her interest in health, she took a class on Anthropology of Women at San Francisco State University in 1977, and the collection includes her research notes and papers on women’s health.

Nikki nursed Harry Bridges through his long illness, setting aside her own writing to help him organize his thoughts for an autobiography. Failing in this, they sought out historians and in 1985 chose Robert Cherny of San Francisco State to accomplish the task.

After Harry’s death in 1990, Nikki began writing again as well as being active in many civic organizations. On May Day 1994, she married Ed Flynn, past president of the Pacific Maritime Association, the organization that represents shipowners and the man who sat across the negotiating table from Harry Bridges. Noriko Sawada Bridges Flynn died on February 7, 2003 at her home in Pescadero. Her husband and daughter held a memorial service on February 18, 2003, when her ashes were scattered in the San Francisco Bay.