Tom exemplifies the “typical” Nisei…hard working, unassuming, soft-spoken. Tom worked for Hughes Grocery Store as a truck driver. He would spend days on the road, but he kept in touch with what was going on in the Japanese American community. He took his newspapers with him and would write letters to the editor when some issue or remark by someone angered or touched him. He spoke out against “Japan bashing” when the mainstream media blamed the Japanese for America’s economic woes. Tom was a delegate on the 1987 NCRR lobbying trip to Washington DC and spoke for NCRR at numerous press conferences.
Miya Iwataki wrote in her December 1990 Tozai Times column, “In October, NCRR lost Tom Shiroishi, the first person in our inner core to pass away. And it hurt. Tom was a robust, earthy Nisei truck driver who never missed a meeting unless he was on the road. He was a staunch and committed fighter for Redress, who demanded that ‘the Nisei get off their fannies and do something’ about Redress. Tom and his wife Toki would show up at steering committee meetings with onigiri and Toki’s great chicken tatsuta-age or some other goodies.” …”And Tom Shiroishi is now one of the many who have passed on. But how I wish he had been able to receive that check and the apology…for those were the ultimate symbols of the victory he had played such an important part in winning for all of us. GAMBARE, TOM SHIROISHI!”