<Begin Segment 19>

AI: Now, during these years after the war and after you returned from prison and starting up your family business, all this time you were still back home in the Santa Clara valley.

MK: Yes.

AI: I wanted to ask you about what, what, if you faced any kind of negative reactions from people who knew that you had resisted the draft and had gone to prison. Did that ever affect you or your family?

MK: Everybody at that time was so busy trying to recover, they really didn't have time to study the issues of draft resistance and stuff like that. But later, I, I know that in San Jose there was a lot of people against the draft resisters. They say that they're not against them, but I heard from the, from the other people that's, that's friends with them and friends with me that told me, "This fellow said negative things about the draft resisters." But he'll, he'll never say it in front of anybody.

[Interruption]

AI: So over the years, you have had some unpleasant experiences.

MK: Oh, yeah. There was a fellow resister in the Mountain View area that went to a meeting with Mountain View people there. And he told me that one man that he knew for a long time stood up and pointed him and his wife out, and said that, "These people don't deserve to live in America." Yeah. His, I'll tell you his name. His name is George Ishikawa. He was one of the, he's very good talker and very good thinker, but his wife was harassed in camp during the war years, so she don't want him to speak out. So he doesn't. So I know similar instances like that. I don't know why, but they, there's certain people that's very patriotic, especially some of the wives, wives of young guys that, these young guys never went even overseas, but their wives are in the VFW Auxiliary, and boy, they're very patriotic.

AI: Well, another time you were talking about different ways of being patriotic.

MK: Yeah.

AI: Would you talk about that now?

MK: Oh, yeah. I believe there are different ways. I believe that like Fred Shiyosaki, he's very sincere in saying that he believes in that, when he went into the army and that he was being very patriotic. I believe him because he's, he's not really a overbearing guy that everything he says is, is waving a flag. Like me, I believe that, believing in constitutional principle is being in one way very patriotic, too. I believe, I don't know the history of "no-no" people, but when they got angry and they refused to cooperate with the government, in a way that's being patriotic, too, because to me, they're showing that that they're willing to fight for what they think is right. If it wasn't for this harassment and persecution, they would probably never go "no-no." Oh, I can't think of it now, but there's, there's different ways to show patriotism. It's not always carrying a rifle. It's, well, I think a person that's a good American, works hard, would go into the service if there's a need for it, and -- if he's a free man and obeys everything like the laws, is not a, doesn't do any criminal things or stuff like that, just to better himself -- I think that's showing loyalty in their way, too. So I believe everybody has a different definition of loyalty.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2001 Densho. All Rights Reserved.