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Reaction of Japanese American community toward draft resistance stance

The treatment given to us, I think, severely by I think most means, is that they wanted to discourage any more resisters to come out of camp. That they wanted to make sure that we have a lot of people volunteering or entering the service to the JACL liking, or the administration's liking. And I think that's when they heard about us, they wound up with a name the “no-no boys,” also calling us the “draft dodgers” and “chicken” and anything, a “disloyal” and so on so forth. And this is one of the reasons why I thought I'd better speak up now to let the people know my reasons, my thoughts about why I had taken the stand that I did. Because all through these years, for some fifty years, nobody had asked me about why I've done it but they've all drawn their conclusion from what they read in the paper.


draft resisters resisters World War II

Date: July 25, 1997

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Larry Hashima, Stephen Fugita

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Nisei male. Born 1925 in Seattle, Washington. Spent prewar childhood in Seattle's Nihonmachi. 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. (July 25, 1997)

Cedrick Shimo
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Cedrick Shimo

525 Quartermaster Corps

(1919-2020) Member of the 1800th Engineering Battalion. Promoted Japan-U.S. trade while working for Honda's export division.

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Cedrick Shimo
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Cedrick Shimo

Fort McClellan soldiers

(1919-2020) Member of the 1800th Engineering Battalion. Promoted Japan-U.S. trade while working for Honda's export division.

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Jimmy Murakami
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Jimmy Murakami

Losing his sister in camp

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

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William Hohri
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William Hohri

Going to camp with the Terminal Island people

(1927-2010) Political Activist

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William Hohri
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William Hohri

Outhouses and showers at camp

(1927-2010) Political Activist

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William Hohri
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William Hohri

Interned at age fifteen, I saw camp as an adventure

(1927-2010) Political Activist

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Sumiko Kozawa
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Sumiko Kozawa

Coming back to America from Japan before the war

(1916-2016) Florist

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Sumiko Kozawa
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Sumiko Kozawa

Her experience of Japanese American Evacuation

(1916-2016) Florist

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Sumiko Kozawa
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Sumiko Kozawa

Working in the camp hospital

(1916-2016) Florist

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Sumiko Kozawa
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Sumiko Kozawa

Experiencing prejudice after the war

(1916-2016) Florist

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Rose Ochi
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Rose Ochi

Incarceration, Deportation, and Lawyers

(1938-2020) Japanese American attorney and civil rights activist

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Jimmy Murakami
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Jimmy Murakami

Leaving Tule Lake

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

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Jimmy Murakami
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Jimmy Murakami

Introduction to Film

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

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Jimmy Murakami
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Jimmy Murakami

Seagulls

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

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Willie Ito
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Willie Ito

Father’s Optimism

(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII

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