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
Positive experiences with Asian Americans for Action
(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist
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
Living conditions in prison while serving time for resisting the draft
(b. 1925) Draft resister
Talking to children about decision to resist the draft during World War II
(b. 1925) Draft resister
Reflecting on Japanese Americans' response to incarceration
(b. 1925) Draft resister
Thoughts on relationship between Japanese Peruvians and Japanese Americans at Crystal City, Texas
(1937 - 2021) Teacher
Father interrogated by FBI, but not taken away
(1925 - 2018) Nisei educator from Hawai‘i
The political effects on Nikkei during the war (Spanish)
(b. 1950) Nisei Chilean, Businessman
Government sold Japanese Canadian properties for little money
(b. 1928) Doctor. Former Chair of the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation.
Challenges of finding a summer job
Judge, only Japanese American to serve on CWRIC.