Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Tom Akashi Interview
Narrator: Tom Akashi
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda (primary); Chizu Omori (secondary)
Location: Klamath Falls, Oregon
Date: July 3, 2004
Densho ID: denshovh-atom-01-0021

<Begin Segment 21>

TI: So this was about six months in, and you mentioned earlier how your father, right away, applied to be transferred. Six months in, you still haven't been transferred. How, what was, what was going on? Why was it taking so long for, for things to happen?

TA: I knew why later on, but at the time, like everybody else, we waited in line, and the first thing says, "We got a lot of applications and it takes a while." And my, my father was aware of the fact that they did some, some spot check, to see whether there's anything in the background, things like that. So it was taking a little bit more time. And so he kind of accepted that at first. But as the time went, they kept saying, "Oh, just a little bit longer. A little bit longer." And he started to... started to change. He says, "Hey, maybe our chances of going is, is not as good as we thought it was." But yet he, he kept his spirits up and told us, "It'll be soon. We'll, we'll be going to join Grandma." And then, of course, the "no-no" situation came about. For a while it was temporary, some people were not allowed to leave until the "no-no" situation was, was completed.

TI: Well, so, yeah, let me, let me explain. So what happened was the questionnaire came out.

TA: Yeah.

TI: And, and so what all, essentially adults over, was it over sixteen or over seventeen, had to answer this, or is it eighteen?

TA: There were several applications. The first -- well, it was simultaneously, but, but the army --

TI: Right, so you had draft eligible men.

TA: This is for the, yeah, for the selective service, and within that, within that thing, was the two questions: "Will you serve," or "Will you swear allegiance." Okay, those 26 -- 27 and 28, was a matter for seventeen and over, to thirty-four, draftable age, that was what the thing, form was. Because the objective was to screen out those who are "loyals" and "disloyals." And then have them volunteer for the all-Nisei combat team.

TI: Right. And they took that same questionnaire, though, and they tried to modify it for others, also.

TA: At the same time, WRA came out with their own form, which had the same two set of questions. Okay, the same two questions, but now the WRA form was for men, for the men -- for the Niseis, undraftable age, and, and the Isseis. And then for the women, they had a question, the 27 was, "Would you volunteer for the nursing corps, or the women's auxiliary, army auxiliary corps," which pertained to the women. So there was a big hassle, and what happened as a result of this questions, the government changed it. And they changed it to, "Would you obey the law of the United States," and, you know. So what happened is that --

TI: That was on question number 28. So rather than swearing allegiance to --

TA: Twenty-eight was allegiance to... which a lot of Isseis objected to. My father objected to it, and he supported the Isseis, because the Isseis were saying, "Wait, we can't do this. If we do this, what happens to us?" Says, "That means that we have no country."

TI: It'd be, they'll be individuals with no, no country.

TA: Yeah. And so as a result, my father and many others, of course, advocated the change. Says, "Change it so that it'd be more acceptable to the Isseis."

CO: You know, it's really ironic, the first two camps that were given the questionnaires were Tule Lake and Manzanar, and those are the two camps that had the most trouble with all this. Then when they changed that question 28 for the rest of the camps, then, you know, it just calmed down. And you have to make these distinctions, because if you single out Tule Lake as being the biggest troublemaking camp, they were the first to get these, and so...

TA: Yeah. And they were given a lot of misinformation, such as you will be liable and criminally liable.

CO: That's right. For twenty thousand dollar fine and ten years in jail for not answering these...

TA: Yeah, so, jail and so all those, it's a different kind of a situation.

CO: So that it's unfair to single out Tule Lake as --

TA: That is, that is true.

CO: As being more "troublemaking" than anywhere else. It was just an accident of, of order.

TA: Yeah. Conflicting orders, and different people presenting the different information to the residents.

CO: Yeah. So anyway...

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.