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Beijing Warns Trump over Provocative Rhetoric; South Korean Business Leaders Summoned in Political Scandal; Judge Declares Mistrial in Ex-cop's Murder Case; At Least 36 Killed in Oakland Warehouse Fire; Internment Camp Survivors Raise Civil Rights Concerns; Iraq War Veteran Walks 5,800 Miles to Honor His Battalion. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired December 06, 2016 - 00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:10] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.

Ahead this hour --

Be it by accident or design, Donald Trump appears to be laying out a tough new policy with China sparking new warnings from Beijing.

The corporate titans of South Korea summoned by lawmakers and questioned over the president's corruption scandal.

Plus, a (inaudible) road, an American Iraq war veteran and his very long walk into hope and healing.

Hello and welcome to all our viewers all around the world. I'm John Vause. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.

Beijing has issued one of its sternest warnings yet to U.S. President- Elect Donald Trump after he blasted China on Twitter over the weekend. An editorial in the "People's Daily" stated bluntly, "Trump and his transition team should realize that making trouble for China-U.S. ties is making troubles for themselves."

The controversy erupted Friday with an unprecedented phone call between Trump and the leader of Taiwan breaking decades of diplomatic protocol. China initially blamed Taiwan noting that Trump is not yet the U.S. president. The Chinese foreign minister on Monday declined to directly criticize Trump's tweet but said Beijing is in contact with the Trump team.

Joining me now is the Democratic strategist Matt Littman, and Marks Vafiades chairman of the Los Angeles County Republican Party. Guys -- thank you for being with us on a Monday.

Ok. So right now there does seem to be a debate about Donald Trump, the President-Elect. He has everyone guessing. Is this a bold new policy when it comes to China? Is it a brilliant strategy or is it a diplomatic gaffe which could essentially end basically the bedrock principle of almost 40 years of relations between U.S. and China? Mark -- you first.

MARK VAFIADES, LOS ANGELES REPUBLICAN PARTY: I think this has been way overblown. I don't think it's a big deal. It was just a congratulatory call to Donald Trump. And he received over 50 congratulatory calls from people all over the world. He hasn't denounced the one-China policy. They didn't talk policy so I don't see what the big deal is.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEW LITTMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: It's a big deal. It's a change in the policy of the United States. It's a change for him to be coming and they planned this out weeks in advance. He has a lot of advisers apparently who are very close with the Taiwanese government.

So this is a big change. He is also not yet president. We've got a couple of months until he's actually president and he is sort of setting the bar now for this fight with China.

I think what we have to look forward to is that in April you could declare -- the U.S. could try to declare China a currency manipulator. And that's when we're really going to be off to the races because it sounds like Trump really is going to get into this fight with China.

VAFIADES: Well, there's nothing wrong talking tough with China. Especially in China, in the South Sea, they're building an island and a military base and we said nothing about that. That's something that if we had a tough-talking president maybe we would have stopped that.

Littman: Well, I don't know that a tough-talking president would do it but you're right, that is a big problem. But what we're talking about also is a 35 percent tax on Chinese goods in the United States. That could be a problem that affects the U.S. economy very negatively.

VAUSE: I saw Steven Moore, because he is the economic adviser to Donald Trump. He was talking about China earlier tonight. He was pretty blunt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVEN MOORE, TRUMP ECONOMIC ADVISER: Taiwan is our ally, John. That is a country that we have backed because they believe in freedom. And we ought to back our ally. And if China doesn't like it, screw them. Screw them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So Mark -- does that sum up the new Trump policy when it comes to China? Screw them?

VAFIADES: I don't think exactly that. Steven Moore actually has been quite a free trader in the past. He is a good friend of Milton Friedman's. And I think what they are really talking about -- they're talking tough now but what they want is a fair deal with China. China taxes our goods going into their country but we don't tax theirs. So I think -- LITTMAN: That's not true. We actually do tax theirs. We tax --

there's a slightly lower level but we do tax theirs. They tax ours at about 8 percent and we tax theirs at about 2.5 percent to 3 percent.

VAFIADES: Ok.

VAUSE: I know you don't think it's a big deal, I know you think that this is -- it's all being overblown but there are certain key points here when it comes to diplomacy. The Trump transition team continually refers to the president of Taiwan as the president of Taiwan.

Here's the VP-Elect Mike Pence over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT: I think the conversation that happened this week with the president of Taiwan was a courtesy call. She reached out to the President-Elect and he took the call from the democratically-elected leader of Taiwan. And it's one of more than 50 telephone calls that the President-Elect has taken from and made to world leaders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: You know, the leader of Taiwan she doesn't even use the title president of Taiwan. She calls herself the president of the Republic of China and this is important.

And I want to give you -- show you this tweet that came from Ari Fleischer, the former spokesperson for the Bush White House. He tweeted it out over the weekend, "Uh-oh, I wasn't even allowed to refer to the government of Taiwan. I could say government on Taiwan. China will go nuts."

[00:05:10] And the reason why I bring this up Mark is because in this relationship more than most, words matter. And there is a feeling among many people out there who know this stuff that the Trump team either don't know it or they're willfully ignoring it.

VAFIADES: Well again, this may be the beginning of the negotiation. Once he's in -- he's not the president yet -- once he's in there I think then that will be the beginning of the negotiations with China. And again, he's not violating the one-China policy. He's not thinking of trashing that. So I'm really not worried. This is just the beginning of conversation with China.

LITTMAN: Well, that may be true that this is the beginning of a conversation, the beginning of a negotiation with China. It also seems to me to be very true that they are purposely picking a fight now with China that Trump had been talking tough about China all along. But what he's doing with China may have a very negative impact on the U.S. economy. And I think that's what we have to watch out for.

VAUSE: Ok. The other big news out of Trump Tower, we had the former vice president, Al Gore, a man who has made climate change most of his life turning up initially for talks with Ivanka Trump but actually spending most of his time speaking with Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The bulk of the time was with President-Elect Donald Trump. I found it an extremely interesting conversation and to be continued. I'm just going the leave it at that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Matt -- what do you read into that meeting?

LITTMAN: Nothing. I mean that is incredibly vague. He is really not giving any substance at all. I'm surprised --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: You don't think that anything happened?

LITTMAN: Well, I'm surprised. And I'm surprised he went to the meeting. And I know that he was initially supposed to meet with Ivanka Trump and then Donald Trump isn't going to be there. Donald Trump -- speaking of China -- believes that climate change is a conspiracy created by the Chinese to destroy U.S. manufacturing so maybe Trump is backing off that a little bit.

VAUSE: Mark.

VAFIADES: Well, I agree. I hope it's nothing because I wouldn't be crazy about that. But it does show that Donald Trump is willing to speak to anyone. I mean, again it was a big surprise when he brought Mitt Romney in as a potential secretary of state. But again, I'm not a fan of Al Gore so I hope it comes -- nothing comes of it.

VAUSE: Ok.

The other news is that Ben Carson, a former presidential rival, is being tapped for secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Here's a reminder of what Donald Trump thought of Dr. Carson during the campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: Other people said he said in the book and I haven't seen it -- I know it's in the book, that he's got a pathological temper or temperament. That's a big problem because you don't cure that. That's like I could say -- they say you don't -- as an example, child molester, you don't cure these people. You don't cure a child molester. There's no cure for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Ok. So that was the campaign. Just a couple of weeks ago a spokesperson for Dr. Carson seemed to rule him out of the job saying this, "Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience. He has never run a federal agency. The last thing he would want to do is take a position that could cripple the presidency as opposed to running for president." But the mere fact that Ben Carson does not have a lot of experience, this is a huge agency.

LITTMAN: This is a huge agency which is often mired in controversy. It's one of the more difficult agencies to run. As Ben Carson's closest adviser said, he doesn't exactly seem qualified for this job. He is also a doctor; he's not involved in housing.

It's hard to figure out what Trump is doing except for the fact that sometimes when the Republicans get in, they'll say that the government doesn't exactly work right and people get angry about the government and then more Republicans seem to be getting in. So this seems to follow with that pattern.

VAFIADES: Dr. Carson is a brilliant man. I mean from very humble and tough beginnings, he became one of the most, you know, renowned surgeons in the country. And he is an intelligent guy and I'm -- it's refreshing to see someone that hasn't been mired in the bureaucracy to go in there and look at it from a different set of eyes and hope to clean things up.

LITTMAN: But how could that be a good idea -- seriously? How could that be a good idea?

VAFIADES: Barack Obama had no experience running any kind of an organization when he became president.

LITTMAN: But Barack Obama was in the government. Ben Carson is a doctor --

VAFIADES: He was a legislator.

LITTMAN: -- who his top adviser says is not qualified to be running a government agency. Now he's running a very difficult --

(CROSSTALK)

VAFIADES: He's a brain surgeon. When you do that you have to bring in a vast number of folks. You have to work -- it's about relationships and working together to solve complicated problems.

LITTMAN: With like six people in a room. This is a big government agency.

VAUSE: You don't have to be brain surgeon to be secretary of housing.

LITTMAN: My prediction right now is that if we come back here a year from now Ben Carson is out.

VAFIADES: I think he will do a great job.

VAUSE: We'll hold to that.

Next hour, we'll catch up. A lot more to get to.

VAFIADES: Thanks -- John.

LITTMAN: Thanks.

VAUSE: Eight business leaders from South Korea's top corporations are on the hot seat over the country's growing political scandal. Lawmakers are investigating whether they gave money to two foundations tied to the president in exchange for special treatment.

The men run big name companies like Samsung and Hyundai and they control revenue equivalent to half of South Korea's economy.

[00:10:00] CNN's Paula Hancocks joins me now live from Seoul. Paula -- is this unprecedented to have these tycoons of the South Korean business summoned to appear before parliament like this?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On this scale it is, John, yes. We did see something similar back in the 80s during another corruption scandal involved in a former president but it certainly has not been as big as this.

You've got eight heads of business, effectively the eight most powerful men in this country, you could say. As you said, the conglomerates are worth a tremendous amount within the economy and these are men that don't usually speak to the public. They don't usually speak to media. They don't usually answer questions in any shape or form.

So the fact that they are now all sitting together in parliament or in the parliament building and having to be grilled by 17 lawmakers is really quite remarkable. The fact is these lawmakers are trying to find out whether or not they did give money and did give donations to one of President Park Geun-Hye's close confidants Choi Soon-Sil who is currently in prison and been indicted on charges of fraud and abuse of power. Now they did say that they had given some contributions to the foundations but all of them denied that they received favors in return -- John.

VAUSE: Is this a genuine hearing to gather evidence against Park or is it more spectacle for the cameras?

HANCOCKS: Well the lawmakers would certainly say that it is a genuine effort to try and find out exactly what happened. It's a bigger part of an investigation, a separate investigation to the criminal one that the prosecutors are doing and it's for the national assembly really to find out whether or not state affairs were meddled with, whether or not this influence peddling actually affected the way that government was run.

So there are two sort of concurrent investigations ongoing at this point. Up until now President Park Geun-Hye has said she does support this investigation but of course, the previous investigation with prosecutors she then said she would not cooperate with that after they said they wanted to investigate her as a suspect -- John.

VAUSE: And is this the week in which we could see President Park forced from office?

HANCOCKS: It's anybody's guess at this point. There were rumors whether or not she will give a fourth speech. She has given three speeches so far, three apologies. The previous one she said she would resign if parliament wants it but left it up to parliament to decide how and when that would happen. That wasn't enough for hundreds of thousands of people who are protesting on the streets calling for a clear resignation.

Potentially it could happen this week. You've got an impeachment vote coming on Friday from opposition leaders and, of course, it's key to see how many of Park's own party -- the ruling party, will go against her and vote for that impeachment. If two-thirds of parliament votes for the impeachment then she will be impeached. But of course, that will then take months -- John.

VAUSE: Ok. Paula -- thank you. Paula Hancocks there, live with the very latest details. Thank you -- Paula.

Short break -- when we come back, a judge has declared a mistrial in the case of a former police officer charged with killing an unarmed man. We'll hear some of that testimony; also reaction from the victim's family.

And days after a California warehouse went up in flames investigators are finding more victims and are now considering criminal charges.

[00:13:20] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: After days of deliberation, a jury in South Carolina failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a former police officer charged with killing an unarmed man. One of the key pieces of evidence was the shooting itself caught on camera. A warning -- the video is graphic.

The judge declared a mistrial and prosecutors say the case is far from over.

Joining me now for more on this, civil rights attorney and legal affairs commentator, Areva Martin. Areva -- thank you for being here.

The defense argued during this case that there is a lot more to this trial than just the video evidence but everyone who looks at the video simply asks the case -- how can there be any doubt as to what happened here?

AREVA MARTIN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Yes, I think it's going to be difficult for anyone, whether you're a lay person or someone in the legal profession, to understand how the jurors couldn't convict both on murder and manslaughter given what we all witnessed on this very graphic videotape.

This case really reminds me a lot of the Rodney King 1991 beating case where we watched Rodney King get hit 50 times by police officers but yet the state court wasn't able to convict those officers involved in the beatings -- very similar in the situation we're looking at here. A videotape shows what appears to be a shut and closed case but it's not so shut and closed.

VAUSE: Ok. And it does appear there was -- maybe one juror at least who was a holdout. As you say there does seem to be overwhelming evidence for the prosecution. Part of the evidence they saw from that cell phone video was Michael Slager placing his taser next to Walter Scott's body after the shooting.

In many ways it seems this trial put Slager's word against the video evidence.

MARTIN: Yes. And it's interesting to note that the federal court or federal prosecutors that have indicted Michael Slager, one of the charges is obstruction of justice for lying about what happened in the incident. He apparently told investigators that Walter Scott had taken his taser and was actually coming after him with the taser. But that was not evident in the videotape and also the witness that took the videotape disputed that testimony by Slager.

So it will be interesting to see what happens in the federal case if Michael Slager's testimony about him being in fear and about Walter Scott charging at him -- whether that's accepted by federal jurors.

VAUSE: Ok. One of the questions from the jury on Monday included why the definition for self-defense for police is different than it is for civilians. This was Slager's testimony during the trial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have seen the video.

MICHAEL SLAGER, DEFENDANT: I have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you heard that he was 18 feet away. Would you agree that he was not a threat to you with that taser without a cartridge from that distance?

SLAGER: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok. So you're going the stick to that?

SLAGER: Yes. And the reason is from 18 feet he could have turned around and attacked me again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:20:06] VAUSE: So, I mean this is his testimony. It just doesn't seem plausible.

MARTIN: Yes. And I think that's what's so troubling and why so many people are saying that this was a missed opportunity for justice in this case because he is saying at 18 feet away he still believed that Walter Scott posed a threat to him. And that is very difficult for anyone, a layperson or even experts to understand and to believe. So I think there's some real credibility issues here.

And this juror -- this holdout juror she told the judge on Friday that no matter what, she would not be able to convict this cop for this shooting. And that is very troubling about the juror system because when you sit as a juror you are supposed to be able to follow the instructions and follow where the evidence takes you. And if the evidence takes you to a conviction you're supposed to be able to do that. And if you're not you really shouldn't be serving as a juror.

VAUSE: And after the vote, Walter Scott's mother told reporters that she believes that justice would prevail. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDY SCOTT, WALTER SCOTT'S MOTHER: He will get his just reward and we have the federal trial and another trial to go. I'm just waiting on the Lord. I'm just going to rest in the Lord.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: She's going to trust in God. Can she trust in the system?

MARTIN: Well, there are two things that can happen. The state district attorney can retry the officer --

VAUSE: They said that they plan to do that.

MARTIN: -- and they plan to that. And there's also the federal charges that are pending -- three charges pending against this police officer, new juror, new courtroom, new procedure. But there's some questions that civil rights warriors have given the change in administration, new attorney general that will be in office by the time the federal trial begins whether that new attorney general is going to have the same, you know, passion and the same commitment to continuing this case as Loretta Lynch has.

VAUSE: You know, the lawyer for the Scott family also said this was not really justice tonight but rather justice delayed. And he also made this point after the verdict came out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS STEWART, SCOTT FAMILY ATTORNEY: A long five weeks and a missed opportunity for justice, missed opportunity to heal a lot of wounds in this country, missed opportunity to remind the good officers that put on that badge that they aren't Michael Slager.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Missed opportunity not just in this case but in so many other cases where mistrials have been reached when police officers have been involved in fatal shootings of unarmed black men.

MARTIN: Well this case was unique in a couple of different w3ays because not only did the state indict the officer but the feds came right on the heels of that indictment and indicted him as well. We haven't seen an indictment in the Eric Garner case, we haven't seen one in Michael Brown, we didn't see one in Trayvon Martin.

So this was historic in some ways that in these recent police brutality cases we did have federal charges filed but we have this mistrial in the state court. I think everyone is hoping that there will be a retrial at the state level and a trial at the federal level and that justice is served for this family.

VAUSE: Ok. Areva -- thanks for coming in.

MARTIN: Thanks -- John.

VAUSE: The death toll from the fire that engulfed a California warehouse on Friday night is now up to 36 people. Investigators are still searching the building for the missing. So that number could still rise. The city of Oakland has launched a criminal investigation into what caused the fire.

Brynn Gingras joins us now live from Oakland where a vigil is being held to remember the victims. And Brynn, so many vigils are now being held or being planned for the victims. There will be many difficult days to come.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it has certainly been a difficult four days here in Oakland. Behind me that vigil is still going on about for an hour and a half or so. And if my crowd estimates are any good there is about 1,500 to 2,000 people here. And it's been a celebration and it's also been just really time for mourning for these people.

Remember this is a very artsy community here in Oakland. This is a time for mourning really for people and it's a celebration that people, again, come together and people have described that warehouse that erupted in flames on Friday as sort of a church. It's an area where a lot of people just want to spend time together and be able to sort of express their artistic side and be together. And so now it seems that all those people have come out here do the same here -- John.

VAUSE: -- this stage and in particular the identities of those who lost their lives in this fire?

GINGRAS: Yes, you know, the investigation is in very early stages. That's been reiterated time and time again by authorities. At this point, again 36 people have been brought out of that building, only 33 have been identified. It's a painstaking process for these authorities. They are even having to contact embassies in Guatemala and Korea and Finland where there were victims.

And so they're trying to work with those embassies to identify them. So it's been a really difficult process as far as the investigation goes. The D.A. said today there are two questions they're trying to answer. Is there any criminal liability to this and if there was, who is responsible?

[00:25:10] But before they can even get the answers to those questions they need to answer the questions about what exactly happened and those answers aren't coming any time soon because they are still actually going into the building, bringing out buckets of debris, going through it methodically to try to find evidence to answer those questions.

But certainly there are so many questions about what exactly unfolded there that night and a lot of people, you know, working on this investigation, interviewing people who actually lived there trying to find those answers quickly -- John.

VAUSE: And just finally here -- Brynn. And is there a responsibility here for the city, you know, the local officials who failed to enforce the fire code, who essentially, everyone seemed to know that this place was being used as an entertainment venue, as a place where people were living even though it wasn't permitted for that?

GINGRAS: You know, that is something that has been asked over and over again from -- to authorities at this point from the media here in Oakland. And the short answer is they're working on it.

There have been a number of citations for that particular building. There also have been a number of complaints that authorities did respond to. At the moment those were active investigations when this fire broke out. So there's really no quick answer to that. And I think that's part of the larger investigation that exists.

But again this is something that this community we have been told time and time again they knew the risks behind that particular building but it didn't matter. They still decided to go in and take part in this because it was such a community place for people to express their artistic side -- John.

VAUSE: Ok. Brynn -- thanks so much. Brynn Gingras there, live in Oakland at one of the many vigils that are being held and will be held in the coming days. Thanks -- Brynn

We'll take a short break.

When we come back, a milestone anniversary is coming up and there are renewed fears for survivors of an ugly chapter of American history.

Also a U.S. Iraq war veteran from one of the hardest hit Marine battalion takes a long walk to remember his brothers. His story later this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:00] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles, I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.

China's foreign minister says his government is in contact with Donald Trump transition team after the president-elect criticized Beijing on Twitter. Trump was also scolded in an editorial in the "People's Daily," warning Trump against upsetting the delicate balance in U.S.- China relations. Dozens of Syrians are dead after the last two days of air strikes. The Syrian regime now controls a little over half of Eastern Aleppo. Activist say residential areas, markets and schools were also targeted in nearby Idlib province. Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council Resolution on Monday calling for a ceasefire so aid could be delivered into Aleppo.

The heads of South Korea's top corporations are being questioned by parliament over the country's growing political scandal. Lawmakers are investigating whether they donated money to foundations link to the president in exchange for special treatment.

The Euro fell to a 20-month low against the dollar after Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced his resignation. Renzi promised to step down if he lost a constitutional referendum and he did by a big margin. It's not clear if an early election will be called or the Italian president will appoint a caretaking government until 2018.

When the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor is observed on Wednesday, it will carry a deep meaning for some Japanese Americans.

Kyung Lah reports survivors of America's interment camps and hearing echoes in Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric and they are sounding the alarm.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did it during World War II with Japanese.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Islamism. It is a vicious cancer.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Get the bad ones out.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You may call this heated political rhetoric. Pat Sakamoto sees history repeating.

PAT SAKAMOTO, MANZANAR SURVIVOR: The same thing happened to us. It can happen to you.

LAH: Sakamoto was born in Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp in California. An infant. One of the 120,000 Japanese people ordered into captivity. Two-thirds of them, U.S. citizens.

The attack on Pearl Harbor 75 years ago plunged the U.S. into war. President Roosevelt signed an executive order.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: All persons of Japanese descent were required to register.

LAH: They lost their homes, businesses, and civil liberties.

ROOSEVELT: Treatment of people who may have loyalties to an enemy nation -- LAH (on camera): What did Manzanar do to your mother? SAKAMOTO: It actually broke up the family.

LAH (voice-over): Her father left his wife and two daughters, refusing to sign a loyalty pledge to the country that imprisoned him. He was deported to Japan, a country he'd never lived in.

LAH (on camera): He was a U.S. citizen?

SAKAMOTO: He was a U.S. citizen.

LAH: You never knew your biological father?

SAKAMOTO: No. My mother, because he made that decision to leave her, it broke her heart. And she would say, there's nothing to remember.

JOYCE NAKAMURO OKAZAKI, MANZANAR SURVIVOR: If you got close to the fence, you would be shot. So don't go near the fence.

LAH (voice-over): Do not call this an internment. It was a prison camp, remembers Joyce Okazaki. She was seven years old in April 1942.

OKAZAKI: It was because we were Japanese. We had the Japanese ancestry.

LAH (on camera): That was your crime?

OKAZAKI: Yes, that was our crime. It took away our freedom is what it did.

CROWD (chanting): Donald Trump, go away, (INAUDIBLE) anti-gay.

LAH (voice-over): The difference today, awareness, and a grassroots opposition to Washington.

SAKAMOTO: They never thought it could happen again. I just -- it's like unbelievable that it's happening. I'm more disappointed than angry, I think, in our country.

LAH (on camera): What's important for us to know today?

SAKAMOTO: You have to right for your civil rights. You can't just sit back and say that I'll let that happen to me.

LAH (voice-over): Their hope, that America's arc of the moral universe bends this time towards justice.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: While the death toll is climbing as the battle for Mosul becomes a slow grind. Just ahead, we had more on the fight that builds familiar to some U.S.-Iraq war veterans. And one of those veterans is on a journey to remember his brothers who made the ultimate sacrifice.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:37:00] VAUSE: For seven weeks now, Iraqi coalition forces backed by the U.S. have been battling to retake the ISIS-held city of Mosul. After quick gains, the offensive has now slowed with ISIS fighters using civilians as human shields and sending waves of suicide bombers in trucks and cars.

It's a fight familiar to many U.S. veterans who liberated the city from Saddam Hussein 12 years ago. Nearly 4500 American troops died in Iraq since 2003. The second battalion fought marines lost more soldiers on the battlefield than any other unit. Many in the fight for Ramadi. And for those who survive, they came home with physical injuries and emotional scars as well.

And for one marine, dealing with all of that, it meant taking a walk. A very long walk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SCENES FROM "BASTARD'S ROAD")

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Jonathan Hancock joins me now. Thanks for coming in.

JONATHAN HANCOCK, MARINE VETERAN: Thanks for having me.

VAUSE: How are the feet?

HANCOCK: They look like a prehistoric river bed, but they work.

VAUSE: 9,000 kilometers, what, 58,000 miles. That's a lot of lonely road out there.

HANCOCK: Absolutely. Absolutely. It's been quite a lonely journey for some of it, but mostly the amount of support that I've gained from everyone that I've come in contact with as well as the magnificent bastard brothers that I've met as well as the Gold Star families has been -- it's just been reinvigorating.

VAUSE: We'll get to that in a moment. But when you are all by yourself, when you are doing those really long walks and it's just you and your thoughts, what have you sort of come to the conclusion? With having all this time to reflect.

HANCOCK: Ultimately it's that I don't have to be the person that I was. When I came home from the Marine Corps, when I left the Marine Corps in 2009, I majored in Arabic and Russian in the University of Maryland. Quickly, it spiral out of control.

VAUSE: PTSD?

HANCOCK: There's -- yes, a lot of that. There's a lot of drinking. There's a lot of self loathing. There is a lot of things that I hated about myself and things I wasn't ready to deal with so I compensated with that. I was drinking. I didn't stay in touch with my brothers. I didn't keep them of my situation or what I was going through. And likewise I wasn't listening to other men and what they were going through.

VAUSE: It's tough?

HANCOCK: Yes, it's super tough. It's the toughest thing I've ever done to assimilate back into a culture after leaving a brotherhood where you have the most amount of support and the most amount understanding. And to leave that and to go scatter with the winds and continue on with life as you should, there was a piece of me that was lost.

VAUSE: We have one of those moments when you caught up with a fellow veteran. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SCENES FROM "BASTARD'S ROAD")

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: OK. Clearly, some very happy emotions there.

HANCOCK: Absolutely.

VAUSE: But was it all happy emotions?

HANCOCK: No, not even close.

VAUSE: Yes.

HANCOCK: A lot of those visits that I've gone on and after I've visited with some of those marines, you speak about some of the bad things and the memories that you hold dear to yourself and things you don't share with your families, things you don't think you could share with them and so you share them with each other. And rightfully so, it's possibly because you don't feel that they could understand. And so you have that support network in us. And so some of the time that I've spent with them has been -- there had been tears and there's been lots of hugs and lots of reassurance that we will be there for each other.

VAUSE: You also met up with the families of many of the soldiers who never came home.

HANCOCK: Yes.

VAUSE: What was their reaction like?

HANCOCK: It was probably one of the most welcoming things I've ever experienced. You have to imagine that their sons never came home. And so to see a man that knew their sons or knew of their sons because a battalion is a large entity. You're not going to know everyone in that battalion. And so to say that I knew everyone that was killed in Ramadi would be false. I don't know every man personally. But because they are a 2/4 bastard, I know them. And to see that person walk to your front door or walk up to you, I imagine that they would see their son walking home.

Who never came home and that's got to be tough for them, but it's also very tough for me, because you have to share in that emotion, you have to share in that grief and then you build upon that.

VAUSE: And you really take that on yourself, don't you?

HANCOCK: Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, I wondered if I was strong enough to take this on, take that feeling on to myself. And over the course of time I learned that I was and that I should continue to do this.

VAUSE: Very quickly, we mentioned at the top of the segment, the battle for Mosul is underway. There was a battle for Ramadi earlier this year.

When you look at what's happening in Iraq, do you ever question the sacrifices that you made, not necessarily at the time and the people you were with, but the situation that it has become now?

HANCOCK: No, because what people fail to realize is that although we raise our right hand and absolutely say we support and defend the constitution of America and there's a long -- we're not going to get into that. There is another oath that a war fighter takes and that oath is when the first round cracks down range and you look to your men, in your left and your right, maybe it's said, maybe it's not, but you swear that you will die for that man.

And so, although things have happened in Iraq and they continue to happen, there's not one day that I feel that something -- that is amiss or that I'm not doing, or that what we did there was not for good, because at the end of the day, those men died for me to come home. And that's how it will always be.

VAUSE: Thanks so much.

HANCOCK: Thanks for having me, brother.

VAUSE: Thank you for your service.

HANCOCK: Thank you.

VAUSE: "Bastard's Road," the documentary of Jonathan's journey will be released in 2017. It chronicles his 5800 mile trek towards hope and healing from start to finish.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause. "World Sport" is up next. Then I will be back with another hour of news from all around the world. You're watching CNN.

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