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

Akutsu,Gene

(b. 1925) Draft resister

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

That portion they were stressing your loyalty, not whether you could leave the camp. And if they... I hadn't even given it a second thought about if I answered “yes-yes” I could leave camp. It was just my personal feeling, if they want to know my personal feeling, well they'll get it. So analyzing the questions as they did, I just went ahead and thought what I thought best, whether it's against the camp rules or whatever. So no, no, I never even gave it a thought of using that to get away from camp. To me, I thought that was a regular loyalty question and I should answer loyally. My heart, my feelings.

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.