PARTNER

INTERVIEW ID

ddr-densho-122-9

NARRATOR

Dave Kawamoto

INTERVIEW TITLE

Dave Kawamoto Interview

00:40:47 — 10 segments

DESCRIPTION

Nisei male. Born December 16, 1916, in Cupertino, California. Attended San Jose State College, where he was an NCAA wrestling champion. Immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, tried to enlist in the U.S. Air Corps, but was refused on account of his Japanese ancestry. Was one semester short of earning a business degree when he was removed with his family to the Pomona Assembly Center, California, and the Heart Mountain concentration camp, Wyoming. Was one of the Heart Mountain resisters of conscience, and stood trial in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for resisting the draft in 1944. After World War II, went into civil service and a fruit-selling business. Mr. Kawamoto was posthumously awarded his business degree from San Jose State.

(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.)

PRODUCTION

Frank Abe, interviewer; Frank Chin, interviewer

PERSONS/ORGANIZATIONS

CONTRIBUTOR

Frank Abe Collection

PREFERRED CITATION

Courtesy of Frank Abe

RIGHTS