Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Mits Koshiyama Interview
Narrator: Mits Koshiyama
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: July 14, 2001
Densho ID: denshovh-kmits-01-0008

<Begin Segment 8>

AI: Well, you and your family were in the Santa Anita Assembly Center for a few months then during the summer of '42.

MK: Yeah.

AI: And you were saying that it, at that point, it really didn't cross your mind to do anything except cooperate...

MK: Yeah.

AI: ...with what you were told to do. Well, in fact, in August of '42 while you were at Santa Anita, you turned eighteen.

MK: Yeah.

AI: You had your eighteenth birthday.

MK: Yeah.

AI: What do you recall from that time when you turned eighteen?

MK: Eighteen, I knew that I had to register for the draft. So I did.

AI: Did you register right there at the assembly center?

MK: Uh-huh. I registered there. And I didn't get my answer until I went to Santa Anita -- I mean, Heart Mountain, Wyoming. There I received my 4-C classification.

AI: But at the time in Santa Anita, you didn't know that yet.

MK: No.

AI: So as far as you knew, you were doing your duty signing up for the draft just like other eighteen-year-olds were doing.

MK: Well, you know, I'll be honest. I learned all this constitutional stuff like that, but it didn't, it never occurred to me that I should really fight for, fight for my constitutional rights because there was no organized protest -- there was none -- no organized protests against the government for the return of our constitutional rights. I really believe that everybody was just frightened and disorganized. And our leaders took, they sort of took advantage of that, took control.

AI: Well, now, while you were at Santa Anita, did you hear very much about the JACL activities, or any other kind of organized activities at the, at Santa Anita?

MK: No, I think in the camps, JACL took a low profile, because I think a lot of, lot of people openly said that they don't trust the JACL any more, because they heard rumors that JACL was cooperating with the government. That's why all the Issei men were put into separate government camps. Those were the rumors. JACL was very unpopular in the camps. Those people really had to watch their steps. In Heart Mountain, very little was seen about JACL. But JACL had gained power with the government. Government gave them the power to actually be the spokesperson for the people in the camps. All the camp newspapers were run by JACL personnel, their type of thinking. So there was no speaking out in the camp papers about constitutional rights or anything. Heart Mountain Sentinel was very weak on constitutional issues. You never read about, if you, if you think that it was strong -- it was a well-organized paper, but never spoke up against the government. Always took the government's side. Dissidents brought up an issue, the, the Heart Mountain Sentinel always, always took the government's side. And they made sure that the people coming into the, work in the personnel, personnel of the Heart Mountain Sentinel were all pro-JACL people.

AI: Well, we're getting a little --

MK: I think that happens to all the camps. That's why they kind of controlled the camps because of the work on the newspapers, the influence of the newspaper, I would say.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2001 Densho. All Rights Reserved.