ddr-densho-122-11-5 (Legacy UID: denshovh-ojimmie-03-0005)

First learning about Heart Mountain's Fair Play Committee

This interview was conducted by filmmaker Frank Abe for his 2000 documentary, Conscience and the Constitution, about the World War II resisters of conscience at the Heart Mountain incarceration camp. As a result, the interviews in this collection are typically not life histories, instead primarily focusing on issues surrounding the resistance movement itself.

00:04:50 — Segment 5 of 10

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August 1993

Frank Abe Collection

Frank Abe Collection

Courtesy of Frank Abe

ddr-densho-122-11

James Omura

James Omura Interview II

00:43:54 — 10 segments

August 1993

Los Angeles, California

Nisei male. Born November 27, 1912, on Bainbridge Island, Washington. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, moved to Denver and took a job as English Editor of a Japanese American vernacular newspaper, the Rocky Shimpo. As editor, wrote about and supported the Fair Play Committee in Heart Mountain concentration camp. Was charged and tried for conspiracy to counsel draft evasion, and was acquitted on the grounds of the First Amendment and freedom of the press. Mr. Omura was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Asian American Journalists Association.

(This interview was conducted by filmmaker Frank Abe for his 2000 documentary, Conscience and the Constitution, about the World War II resisters of conscience at the Heart Mountain incarceration camp. As a result, the interviews in this collection are typically not life histories, instead primarily focusing on issues surrounding the resistance movement itself.)

Frank Abe, interviewer; Frank Chin, interviewer

Frank Abe Collection

Courtesy of Frank Abe

API