Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/658/

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.

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
en
ja
es
pt
Shimo,Cedrick

Finding out Roosevelt wanted Japan to attack

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

en
ja
es
pt
Cedrick Shimo
en
ja
es
pt
Shimo,Cedrick

Parents expected to be taken by the FBI

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

en
ja
es
pt
Cedrick Shimo
en
ja
es
pt
Shimo,Cedrick

525 Quartermaster Corps

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

en
ja
es
pt
Cedrick Shimo
en
ja
es
pt
Shimo,Cedrick

Fort McClellan soldiers

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

en
ja
es
pt
Jimmy Murakami
en
ja
es
pt
Murakami,Jimmy

Losing his sister in camp

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

en
ja
es
pt
Frances Midori Tashiro Kaji
en
ja
es
pt
Kaji,Frances Midori Tashiro

Discrimination for Nisei doctors

(1928–2016) Daughter of an Issei doctor 

en
ja
es
pt
William Hohri
en
ja
es
pt
Hohri,William

Going to camp with the Terminal Island people

(1927-2010) Political Activist

en
ja
es
pt
William Hohri
en
ja
es
pt
Hohri,William

Outhouses and showers at camp

(1927-2010) Political Activist

en
ja
es
pt
William Hohri
en
ja
es
pt
Hohri,William

Interned at age fifteen, I saw camp as an adventure

(1927-2010) Political Activist

en
ja
es
pt
Sumiko Kozawa
en
ja
es
pt
Kozawa,Sumiko

Coming back to America from Japan before the war

(1916-2016) Florist

en
ja
es
pt
Sumiko Kozawa
en
ja
es
pt
Kozawa,Sumiko

Her experience of Japanese American Evacuation

(1916-2016) Florist

en
ja
es
pt
Sumiko Kozawa
en
ja
es
pt
Kozawa,Sumiko

Working in the camp hospital

(1916-2016) Florist

en
ja
es
pt
Sumiko Kozawa
en
ja
es
pt
Kozawa,Sumiko

Experiencing prejudice after the war

(1916-2016) Florist

en
ja
es
pt
Rose Ochi
en
ja
es
pt
Ochi,Rose

Incarceration, Deportation, and Lawyers

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

en
ja
es
pt
Jimmy Murakami
en
ja
es
pt
Murakami,Jimmy

Leaving Tule Lake

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

en
ja
es
pt