Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/659/

Living conditions in prison while serving time for resisting the draft

And we thought, “Well, let's break the ice. One way to break the ice is let's start playing a little bit of sports.” And so came the spring, we decided, “Well, let's apply for, to play baseball. Let's form a team and play within the group there.” And to play with them we got up all the best players that we can find and we played against them and we came out the champs.

And that was the... it broke the ice and people started to get friendly and they found out... “Well, you guys are just average kids. What are you guys doing here?” And this is where the questions started up like, “What happened? How come you're here?” We tell 'em that they just marked us as enemy alien, undesirable, put us into camp and they told us to go to, get into the army and we refused so consequently we're here. And they say, “Oh my God, you guys are just playing a political ping-pong. You're just being bounced around.”

And many of them sympathized with us, and come the following spring, many of 'em wanted to play on the same team as us. So anyway, that's how we got to know the people in the, what they refer to us as the main line, that's the maximum-security group.


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
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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.

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Cedrick Shimo
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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.

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Cedrick Shimo
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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.

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Cedrick Shimo
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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.

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Jimmy Murakami
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Murakami,Jimmy

Losing his sister in camp

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

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Frances Midori Tashiro Kaji
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Kaji,Frances Midori Tashiro

Discrimination for Nisei doctors

(1928–2016) Daughter of an Issei doctor 

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William Hohri
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Hohri,William

Going to camp with the Terminal Island people

(1927-2010) Political Activist

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William Hohri
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Hohri,William

Outhouses and showers at camp

(1927-2010) Political Activist

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William Hohri
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Hohri,William

Interned at age fifteen, I saw camp as an adventure

(1927-2010) Political Activist

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Sumiko Kozawa
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Kozawa,Sumiko

Coming back to America from Japan before the war

(1916-2016) Florist

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Sumiko Kozawa
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Kozawa,Sumiko

Her experience of Japanese American Evacuation

(1916-2016) Florist

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Sumiko Kozawa
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Kozawa,Sumiko

Working in the camp hospital

(1916-2016) Florist

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Sumiko Kozawa
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Kozawa,Sumiko

Experiencing prejudice after the war

(1916-2016) Florist

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Rose Ochi
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Ochi,Rose

Incarceration, Deportation, and Lawyers

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

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Jimmy Murakami
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Murakami,Jimmy

Leaving Tule Lake

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

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