<Begin Segment 18>

TI: But going back to the, like the Heart Mountain resisters, did you ever talk with any of them or know about their story or anything like that?

FS: I did. You know, I didn't join too much because at that time, my dad and my family were signatories to the exchange boat Gripsholm. Remember that boat?

TI: Yes.

FS: So we signed up for that. So in a way, my dad said, "Don't commit yourself, because you're gonna lose your chance to go on the exchange. (...) Be a good boy." So he didn't want us to mess around.

TI: So pretty early, your parents had decided, "We're going back to Japan."

FS: Yeah. So this is (1943) that he signed up for Gripsholm from Heart Mountain.

TI: Now, how did you feel about that? I mean, here you had grown up...

FS: Well, it's sort of like December 7th. I mean, I'm going to, my father and mother, they want to go to Japan. Well, I didn't know. There was no challenge, I had no idea. Really, really. I'm not trying to make up stories, because that would be a lie. But my feeling was, "So what? We're going to Japan, so what?" It'd be maybe better than this, you know, better than camp. It's getting monotonous, maybe change your luck. So just like, what do you say, there were a lot of people that was in that resister was not city boys. They're farmers, Portland, came from Portland, Seattle. Frank Emi was the only one I knew from L.A. All the other young people were from different areas, so I couldn't tie 'em in. Frank Emi, I couldn't tie him. Well, how come he was older than the draft age, and he was married, and he had a kid. So why did he become a protester? He was exempt. You know, he had a bona fide exemption. Why did he want to mess around being "no-no" and draft resister? He couldn't be drafted anyway.

TI: So that just didn't make sense to you?

FS: That's right. Those things didn't make sense to me, so why should I, even if I wanted to, get into an organization that didn't have no cause? No firm, "Yeah, yeah, they put us in camp and they deny citizenship." Oh, that's an everyday story. But there's nothing to say that, "I want to join."

TI: So you were looking for that more personal, like, "What would it do for me personally?"

FS: Yeah, "What would it do to me personally to me where I can contribute?" I just didn't want to be a member. So anyway, that was part of the protests.

TI: No, I get that.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.