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-01-0022

<Begin Segment 22>

TI: So as this got settled down a little bit, your father eventually filled out the form.

TA: Yeah.

TI: How did he answer those two questions?

TA: He answered, he said, the first question, 27, he says, "Because the Isseis were given this form that the females got" -- well, anyhow, he did, and then it said, "Would you serve as a, in the nursing corps or the WRA?" He says, thought that was nonsense, so he left it blank. And then as far as the obeying the law, he says, "Yes." So technically speaking, it was a "yes-yes." Because he, he would have said, "yes" to 27, "Will you serve?" because when he was going to school, he served with a, he was a, joined the ROTC, and he's telling us that we should serve, and he was telling us that, what it is is that bushido meant that you will protect your family and, and your country. And he says, "I came to America, I adopted America. America is my home. It is your home, and I will do whatever possible to defend my home and my family." And he could explain that, and so he was obviously a "yes," a very highly loyal "yes," for that matter. And so, he, "blank-yes," and the, and then the, and then, of course, a lot of the people in the block, they all agreed, because that was a reasonable question. And as a result, our block had the highest rate of registration for that one. And the highest rate of "yes-yes." So it was... and then, like everything else, it was over.

TI: But then later on, the news came out that they were going to segregate, they were going to form a segregation --

TA: Exactly. And what it is is that our application for transfer never came. And he was called in for, by the FBI, to answer certain allegations that were made against him. And he suspected that it was a, the JACL, because some of the things that he was saying was, was contrary to JACL's feeling of, "Hey, let's get all these Niseis to, to volunteer. And he, he felt, he was close to the Kibeis. Very close to the Kibeis, and he felt that the Kibeis were, were really discriminated and abused. He says, "Lot of these people" -- I don't say lot, but many of the Kibeis, they were drafted, they volun-, are volunteer, they served in the army -- this is prior to the war. And what happened is, the Niseis, of course, they were delegated around to minor roles, some of 'em, their guns were taken away, and they were sent to a labor battalion. But the Kibeis were discharged and thrown into the camp. And they were, they said, "Hey, we were serving, and now they want to know what, we were loyal." And not only that, is that the people outside of our camp, what happened is that when they had the chance, the people in Santa Clara moved -- before the evacuation -- to nearby farms, and they were farming nearby. And they were coming to the camps and they would tell us their stories and what they do, and they were free to go wherever they want, and being paid going wages while they were being paid sixteen dollars a month. And they were never questioned. Their loyalty was never questioned. And they said, "They pick us up, put us in, why do they question us?" Said, "We're just as loyal as those people." And that was his rationale, and the more he thought about it, I guess what he was saying is, "This is not right. Our rights are being, being abused."

TI: And so you think because of, he was sort of talking like this, sort of realizing that their rights were being abused, you think that there were people in the JACL who disagreed with him and perhaps informed or told the FBI about this?

TA: Yeah, yes, because -- well, of course, the informant is anonymous. But then, when he went to these meetings and made these protests and things like that, well, it was the JAC members that were against it. Because they wanted, they're the ones that wanted the, the Niseis to volunteer for the army. Because they're the one that suggested it, and they wanted, they want the Niseis to show their loyalty, and says, "Hey." So as he was protesting -- but he was protesting more for the Issei, because the Issei felt that if they were drafted or volunteer, that they lost their son. I mean, that's the Japanese way of thinking. You go, you serve...

CO: You die.

TA: Yeah, you're gonna die. And these people, these Niseis, the young Niseis, were their oldest son. That means that they couldn't speak English, and they're saying, if their son is serving in the army, "What are we gonna do when we go out?" And they, lot of the Isseis married old. They, because they were working and they weren't, there were no women to marry, so as a result, they married late. So they had a lot of young children. And they said, well, these were young children, "How are we gonna, what are we gonna do? Our farm's taken away, our property's taken away, we're gonna, what are we gonna do? We have no skills." So as a result, my, my father was pretty sympathetic to that. And, and as far as the JACL people, they kind of says, "Hey, do what these people are saying. If you want to go out, say 'yes-yes.'" And so he was trying to defend the, the Isseis' concern. And he vocally said that in public meetings. And he suspected there was some JACL member or somebody that informed on him.

TI: Which then led to this interview with an FBI in, in camp.

TA: Yeah, with the FBI, yeah, with the FBI. To find out what he was doing.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.