Interviews

1. Encountering racial discrimination at a public swimming pool

2. Loss of happy-go-lucky adolescence in Puyallup Assembly Center

3. Memories of dusty conditions at Minidoka incarceration camp

4. Making the decision to resist the draft

5. Thoughts on redress

6. Starting over after the war: denial of all things Japanese

7. Have compassion for all of humanity

8. Thoughts on post-9/11 atmosphere: what it means to be American

Yamasaki,Frank

(b. 1923) Nisei from Washington. Resisted draft during WWII.

Making the decision to resist the draft

These were rumors that you must volunteer to prove that you're a good 100 percent American, that you're a loyal American. Volunteer to the U.S. army. Well... no way, from my feeling. It was, it was just totally wrong. Let us, take us back to Seattle, get our parents and get our hotel back, get us back into what we were. We were American. How come Tony, they were Italian, how come they weren't evacuated? How come the German friends I had, they weren't evacuated? And they had far more active political organization in America than the Japanese had. The Japanese, I don't recall ever sounding, being subversive-minded. And I think, later on, it proved there was absolutely no subversive act.

discrimination draft resisters interpersonal relations racism resisters World War II

Date: August 18, 1997

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Lori Hoshino, Stephen Fugita

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Nisei male. Born 1923 in Seattle, Washington. Spent prewar childhood in South Park and Belltown areas of Seattle. Incarcerated at Puyallup Assembly Center, Washington, and Minidoka incarceration camp, Idaho. Refused to participate in draft, imprisoned at McNeil Island Penitentiary, Washington, for resisting the draft. Resettled in Seattle.

*The full interview is available Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.