Discover Nikkei Logo

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/999/

Fair Play Committee

Then they had a public meeting at one of the church buildings. I think where the associate editor of the Heart Mountain Sentinel, uh Nobu Kawaii--who was the former president of the JACL in Pasadena--he urged everybody to say, answer "Yes-yes" to both questions. And at that time this older gentleman (Kiyoshi Okimoto) who was found out later was a [unintelligible] a chemist from Hawaii, got up and he was a member of the ACLU at that time and a very rough, rough talking gentleman, but he got up and said that, "You know everybody should think about the your constitutional rights have all been pounded on you know stepped on." Says, "You have no rights and you should think twice about signing yes to these questions this and that." And some of us that were there felt that well he... to expressing the same kind of feelings that some of us had. And at that time he was calling himself, "The Fair Play Committee of One," going around the camp you know, and then we can get a group he would talk to them about the Constitution. So some of us thought, well this fellow knows what he’s talking about and let’s get together with him. And we got together with him and talked and had some meetings and we ended up having a Fair Play Committee of many you know, and organized.


civil rights draft resisters Heart Mountain Heart Mountain concentration camp Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee imprisonment incarceration resistance resisters United States World War II World War II camps Wyoming

Date: May 9, 2006

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Lisa Itagaki

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

Interviewee Bio

Frank Emi was born on September 23, 1916 in Los Angeles, CA. He ran the family produce business until life was interrupted by war. Emi was sent to Heart Mountain, Wyoming with his young wife and two kids.

Emi, along with many others, openly questioned the constitutionality of the incarceration of Japanese Americans. He helped form the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee and protested against the government’s actions by organizing a draft resistance. Emi was not even eligible for the draft because he was a father.

The Fair Play Committee argued that they were willing to serve in the military, but not until their rights as U.S. citizens were restored and their families released from the camps. The government convicted Emi and six others leaders of conspiracy to evade the draft. He served 18 months in jail. 86 others from Heart Mountain were put on trial and imprisoned for resisting the draft.

Following the war, Emi and other draft resisters were ostracized by Japanese American leaders and veterans. It was not until the fight for Redress, some forty years later that the Fair Play Committee was vindicated for taking a principled stand against injustice.

He passed away on December 2010 at age 94. (December 2010)

James Hirabayashi
en
ja
es
pt
James Hirabayashi

Life in camp as teenager

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

en
ja
es
pt
James Hirabayashi
en
ja
es
pt
James Hirabayashi

Gordon's parents' experience in prison

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama
en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama

Didn't have rights that whites had

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama
en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama

Californians didn't know about evacuation

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama
en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama

Conditions of assembly centers

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama
en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama

Visit to assembly centers by E. Stanley Jones

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama
en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama

Hiding what happened in camp

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama
en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama

Issei are hard-working

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama
en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama

Arrest of father

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama
en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama

Camp as a positive thing

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

en
ja
es
pt
Yukio Takeshita
en
ja
es
pt
Yukio Takeshita

Involvement in JACL

(b.1935) American born Japanese. Retired businessman.

en
ja
es
pt
Grayce Ritsu Kaneda Uyehara
en
ja
es
pt
Grayce Ritsu Kaneda Uyehara

Importance of education in achieving redress for incarceration

(1919-2014) Activist for civil rights and redress for World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans.

en
ja
es
pt
Wakako Nakamura Yamauchi
en
ja
es
pt
Wakako Nakamura Yamauchi

Her experience as a Japanese-American schoolchild in Oceanside, California, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor

(1924-2018) Artist and playwright.

en
ja
es
pt
Roy H. Matsumoto
en
ja
es
pt
Roy H. Matsumoto

Finding work in the assembly center

(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.

en
ja
es
pt
Roy H. Matsumoto
en
ja
es
pt
Roy H. Matsumoto

Train ride to Jerome Relocation Center

(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.

en
ja
es
pt

Discover Nikkei Updates

NIKKEI CHRONICLES #14
Nikkei Family 2: Remembering Roots, Leaving Legacies
Read the stories and give a star to the ones you like the most! Help select our Community Favorite.
Vote for Nima-kai Favorite!
VIRTUAL PROGRAM
Nikkei Uncovered V: a poetry reading
Tuesday, December 9
Hosted by traci kato-kiriyama
Featuring Aaron Caycedo-Kimura, Erica Isomura, and Syd Westley
SUPPORT THE PROJECT
Discover Nikkei’s 20 for 20 campaign celebrates our first 20 years and jumpstarts our next 20. Learn more and donate!