Jim Akutsu Interview Segment 9

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ddr-densho-122-12-9 (Legacy UID: denshovh-ajim-02-0009)

Mother's suicide as a result of ostracism from Japanese American community postwar

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.

00:03:11 — Segment 9 of 15

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August 28, 1993

Frank Abe Collection

Frank Abe Collection

Courtesy of Frank Abe

ddr-densho-122-12

Jim Akutsu

Jim Akutsu Interview

00:43:33 — 15 segments

August 28, 1993

Seattle, Washington

Nisei male. Born 1920 in Seattle, Washington. Incarcerated at Puyallup Assembly Center, Washington, and Minidoka concentration camp, Idaho. Resisted draft, with the rationale that the U.S. government had classified him 4-C, an enemy alien, and he was therefore under no obligation to serve. Imprisoned at McNeil Island Penitentiary, Washington. Vocal critic of JACL. Resettled in Seattle, Washington. Thought by some to be the model for the main character in John Okada's No-No Boy. Mr. Akutsu died in 1998.

(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

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