Interviews
Questioning Curfew
And, and then one day, I'm dashing home. "Hey Gordon, it's five to eight." I grabbed my stuff and it takes about five minutes to get home so I was just dashing home, and it hit me. A question that I should've faced earlier, just hit me. How come I'm dashing home and all your time keepers are still there? I didn't -- I just needed the question to be raised. I knew I couldn't answer it. You know, without saying, "I can't do it."
I turned around and went back to the library. "Hey, what's, what's the matter?" and I said, "Well, you guys are here." "Well, we got work to do." I said, "I got work to do, too. I decided if you guys are here, I'm gonna, I'm gonna work with you. I'll go back when you guys are ready to go." Nobody turned me in. And I didn't take that until it hit me. And when it hit me I knew, gosh, I can't do it. That's two-faced. The only reason I'm subject to go is because of my -- the way it's stated. I'm a person of Japanese ancestry. In fact, there were, there were Canadians in the group, who weren't even citizens, but they didn't have to go. Well, so I couldn't, I couldn't accept it.
Date: April 26, 1999
Location: Washington, US
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda, Alice Ito
Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project
Explore More Videos
Identity crisis (Spanish)
(b. 1969) Former president of Centro Nikkei Argentino.
Dancing in Japan as an American, in the US as Japanese
(1918-2023) Nisei Japanese kabuki dancer
Lack of political power led to camps
(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist
World War II hysteria against Japanese in New York City
(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist
Positive experiences with Asian Americans for Action
(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist
His testimony has more credibility because of his race
(1922 - 2005) Former U.S. Army counterintelligence officer
Different tension between East Coast and Los Angeles
Japanese American Creative designer living in Japan
Being an American soldier and an "enemy alien"
(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation
Not relating to Japan Americans' experiences on the mainland
(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation
Less information about Hawai‘i in mainland
(b.1944) Founder of Kobayashi Group, LLC
A teenager's memories of how a local newspaper misrepresented Japanese Americans
(b. 1925) Draft resister
The role of the media in influencing people's opinions
(b. 1925) Draft resister
Living conditions in prison while serving time for resisting the draft
(b. 1925) Draft resister