Interviews

1. The Kona Island community

2. Going to Japanese school

3. Starting work at five years old

4. Traveling the world seven times

5. Remembering December 7, 1941

6. Being an American soldier and an "enemy alien"

7. Volunteering to serve for the U.S. military in Japan

8. Meeting Japanese Americans from the mainland in MIS

9. Awareness of concentration camps as a Japanese American

10. Not relating to Japan Americans' experiences on the mainland

11. Visiting family in Japan

12. Being stationed in Japan during the American occupation

13. Rebuilding Japan

14. Investigating labor movements in Japan

15. Feeling closer to Japan as a Japanese American

16. Serving as a lawyer to Americans in Japan

17. To serve as a lawyer

18. Defining the term Nikkei

Francis Y. Sogi

(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation

Being stationed in Japan during the American occupation

They (the Japanese) have great respect for us (Japanese Americans) because it was easy for them to communicate with us and the fact that we spoke Japanese and can communicate with them, they preferred us than dealing with Americans. The Americans were much more impersonal, cold, whereas we could be much more compassionate with them. And also, at that time, there was lack of food and lack of everything including cigarettes, and they smoked a great deal, the Japanese at that time. So we used to give them. We received every week from our unit, a ration of one carton of cigarettes, and also six Babe Ruth candies. So the cigarettes we gave as a gift to our friends and also in connection to our work to get intelligence. The candies we gave to the children at church or wherever. They enjoyed the candies a great deal because everything was short [in supply] in Japan especially sugar was very expensive and short.

Japan United States Army

Date: May 29, 2006

Location: Hawai`i, US

Interviewer: Akemi Kikumura Yano

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Francis "FranK" Y. Sogi was born in Lanihau, Kona, on the Big Island of Hawai‘i in 1923, the youngest of five children born to Issei parents who farmed vegetables, bananas and coffee.

Francis began studies at the University of Hawai‘i (UH) in 1941 at 18 years old, and—as required--served in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (R.O.T.C.) to prepare for military service. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, all R.O.T.C. students were inducted into the Hawai‘i Territorial Guard. However, he was soon discharged as being an “enemy alien,” and he returned to UH to continue his education. Men at UH with knowledge of the Japanese language were being recruited to join the United States Military Intelligence Service, so Francis volunteered and in 1944 was sent to Camp Savage and Fort Snelling, Minnesota, for training.

After serving in Japan, translating documents for the U.S. counterintelligence corps, he once again enrolled at UH in 1947. He completed his studies in 1949 and went on to Fordham Law School in New York City while his wife, Sarah, attended Columbia University. He passed the bar exam in December 1952 and was admitted to the New York state bar. In 1953, Frank was asked to serve at the Tokyo office of the law firm of Hunt, Hill and Betts and represented Fortune 500 companies doing license agreements, joint ventures and investments of all kinds. From 1959 - 1984 he was with Miller Montgomery Spalding & Sogi, and in 1984 he joined Kelley Drye & Warren until his retirement in 1993.

Because of their growing philanthropic interests, Francis and his wife Sarah created the Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation, a charitable foundation that currently supports the work of several non-profit organizations.

He passed away on November 3, 2011(November 2011)