<Begin Segment 24>

TI: So tell me now about some of the reactions of people, now that you decided to publicly come out and talk about your position. First, let's talk about on the military side. What happened?

EW: Well, initially, initially, when I came out, there was a lot of hostility, and there was lot of hatred, and there was a lot of just questions. People didn't know why I was doing what I was doing. It was like it was unprecedented.

TI: What would be a typical sort of example of that, of that sort of hostility towards you?

EW: Well, there was one kind of officer friend that I had, we weren't very close. But I had told him a couple months before that I was planning on refusing to go to Iraq, and he was okay with that. He thought that maybe there could be some kind of solution that came out of that. And when I, just before he learned that I was going to come out publicly, he was very angry at me. He himself just believed so strongly in the war, even though for him it was a little weird because he said after he did his tour, he's going to get out of the army. And I just felt, for somebody who felt so strongly, that you would stay in as long as it takes, but that's another story. But for him, he just felt so strongly, and I tried to talk to him and say that these are the reasons why, and he would not listen to anything that I was saying. But on the other side, the day after I came out publicly, I was in a crowd of people, and I was very apprehensive, because I don't know who was gonna start recognizing me or come up to me and be hostile towards me. But there was a sergeant who had been to Iraq, he said he was a medic, and he came up and he shook my hand and said, "I agree with everything you're saying." And even in my own unit, where there was an extreme amount of hostility --

TI: But going back to when he shook your hand, how did that feel?

EW: It felt great. Hey, this one more person is out there. Even though I was the one on the line, I was the one where all the focus was being put on, here, at least somebody who supports what I'm doing, somebody who's been there, to Iraq. And willing to stand up in front of everybody and say that, even though everybody, everybody's eyes weren't on me, but in public, he was willing to do that.

In my own unit, there was a lot of hostility. Even up to this day, nobody has ever approached me, except for that officer friend that I have, and really been hostile towards me. I know there's a lot of it out there, and I'm saying even in the military, even walking around base, being in the crowds, and everybody knowing my name and knowing what I look like, in fact, it's been the total opposite.

TI: So did that surprise you? It surprises me that there hasn't been more confrontations by other people.

EW: I just thought I was either lucky or I was doing a good job of just staying out of crowds. It could be a combination of that. It could be, maybe, even though it's unlikely, that there's a lot more support than we, or I realize. The, the day after I went out in public, there were two African American enlisted soldiers, sergeants, who just came up and, they saw me, and I thought they were going to say something to me, and they walked over to me and they just shook my hand, and that was it. They looked me in the eye, shook my hand, and then walked away. And when I was in, they even made me go through the process of, there's a pre-deployment thing where you have to check off all these things and make sure that you're eligible to be deployable, so I was in a crowd of people and I know there's people who know who I am already by this point. And a captain tapped me on the soldier and he said, "Hey, Lieutenant Watada," and I was like, "Oh boy, here it comes." And he's like, "I wanted to let you know that on the record, I don't support what you're doing. But off the record, I'm behind you one hundred percent." He couldn't, I guess he was saying he couldn't say that he supported me in public, but that's a pretty powerful thing to have there. And ever since then, there have been members of the military who approached me, military, members of Fort Lewis have approached me, persons of all ranks, and really said they either support me or respect what I have done. I have no illusions; I know that people who feel the way I do are not in the majority, but they're certainly not far and few between either, there's a lot of 'em out there.

I've received a lot of correspondence via e-mail or letters of people within the army who are very supportive as well, guys who have been over there, too, dependents, as well. I was at the medical center the other day and this woman just walked behind me and just said, "I want to thank you for speaking out for all of us." I was on the radio the other day, and a woman said that she was in the army reserves, she's a captain, her husband was a major in Afghanistan, they both had been activated, and she said, "We both support you." And I think there's a growing opposition within the military to this war, and I think the vast majority of those in the military just do this because it's their job, despite their personal beliefs. But I think there is a growing number who are supportive of my position, but there are also those within the military who are very against what I am doing.

TI: Do you think there'll be others who will come out and also voice their opposition because of what you've done?

EW: It's very difficult to say. Members of the military, without the support of the people, have a lot to lose, not knowing if they have that support. I'm trying to, trying to get that support publicized and visualized so that people in the military know that the American people support them. But without it, how can you ask an eighteen, nineteen year old soldier who is married and has two kids to go to prison for what is morally right, or what is even their duty? They'll go to prison, their family will starve, they'll be out on the streets, and they get out of prison two or three years later and they have no job, and they have a dishonorable discharge on their permanent record. How can you ask a soldier that young to do that?

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.