Interviews

1. A teenager's memories of how a local newspaper misrepresented Japanese Americans

2. Reaction of Japanese American community toward draft resistance stance

3. The role of the media in influencing people's opinions

4. Living conditions in prison while serving time for resisting the draft

5. Talking to children about decision to resist the draft during World War II

6. Deciding whether to answer "yes-yes" on the loyalty questionnaire in order to leave camp

7. Reflecting on Japanese Americans' response to incarceration

8. Speak out for your beliefs

(b. 1925) Draft resister

The role of the media in influencing people's opinions

My dad, years ago when we were still young, said, “When you control the radio,” in those days of radio and newspaper, “you control the people's mind.” At that time I was too young to realize what he was saying, but as I grew older I realized Dad was right. What they read in the paper they'll believe. If they write anything they want in the paper that they want people to believe, they'll do it and the people will be against you. And when he found out that I guess the majority were against me because my stand... I was quite surprised, I would say. That you'd think that there would be more people that would think about this draft and say, “Is that right?” Now to myself, I thought, to start with, they have, they called me an alien, they had convicted me almost, in fact they did being a Japanese and an alien and unwanted enemy alien without any due process of law, and I thought that was very, very bad. And that I alone can't do anything but I'm gonna do what I planned on doing and hopefully that people would understand but then when the people took the other stance and said that I'm a draft evader I felt real sad that the people thought that way.

discrimination draft resisters interpersonal relations resisters World War II

Date: July 25, 1997

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Larry Hashima, Stephen Fugita

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

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