Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Gene Akutsu Interview II
Narrator: Gene Akutsu
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: April 17, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-agene-03-0012

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TI: And so when we think about Tule Lake, there was, perhaps, this bias thinking that many of the men there would end up in Japan fighting against the United States. So again, that's sort of that same thinking. So I'm curious, when you think of the two groups, I'm trying to think what's the right way of saying this. You were in the draft resister group, and you mentioned earlier, resisting because of, sort of, these democratic feelings, that it's not right to force men to fight while you're being incarcerated. And then you have this other group that, perhaps, were thinking they were treated wrong and they were just making things, perhaps, difficult for the United States and even were saying things like, "We'll go back to Japan." Are they similar? Do you think there was, when you think about how the men in that group thought and how the resisters thought, were there some similar thinking, or do you think they were very different thinking? I mean, I'm trying to get a sense...

GA: Quite different, quite different.

TI: So talk about that. How do you think they were, how would you characterize -- again, this is just generalizing. I know that it's hard to say that one resister, or all resisters thought the same way, or all the segregants all thought the same way, but in general, what do think, how would you describe the differences in thinking?

GA: Well, I tell you, I can't speak for everybody, but I'm just speaking for myself. And my thoughts were that I resisted so that it could be, my story will be in the court, my trial and all that would be in the trial, and how I was treated, thinking that well, you can't go around with the government, especially in the judicial area where they're gonna be fair with you. And I wanted all that put into the... because being poor, we didn't have any money to put out to get a lawyer to have this taken care of. So this way, at least, there's something about our or my reason for not going, and it'll be in the government report. That was basically what I wanted to do, but the only thing was, the judge was very much against the Japanese.

TI: Okay, so I sort of understand that, how would you think the ones who went to Tule Lake, how do you think they were thinking? How would they think, perhaps, differently than that?

GA: Well, there are people who are short-tempered, and anything done to them, they'll retaliate real quick. And I think a lot of 'em are short-tempered, and it just flared up and said anything they want. Now, you yourself probably run into a lot of people like that where they're short-tempered and they'll come out and say anything about you, and then forget about it. But the government don't forget those people.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.