Densho Digital Archive - Takashi Hoshizaki Interview (denshovh-htakashi

<Begin Segment 31>

TI: But tell me how it has been in terms of... so you're talking about some of the men who fought, perhaps in Europe with the 442, what has been the reaction of, of that group towards the resisters?

TH: I find there are some that (...) well, still don't think very highly of us, that we were a bunch of cowards that didn't go in.

TI: And is that based on, are they aware of your full story, that you actually, although you did not, you were convicted of draft resistance during World War II, but you served later, would that information, does that change their thinking?

TH: It might. It might. But there are others that understood where we were coming from as the civil rights part, that we, we used ourselves as a tool to bring it into the court level. But I think that as the story goes on, like I pointed out earlier about the number of us who later served and the number of us who would have, would still be eligible to serve was, out of that sixty-three, there's six that I know of, including myself. And I don't know if there are others in that group that I don't know about, but then I find that there are others from other camps. There were two -- I think they were from Amache -- that went in to be inducted and the sergeant apparently asked them, said, "Wait a minute, how old are you?" And they just had their twenty-eighth birthday, the two of these guys, a month or so earlier, and the sergeant says, "No, you're too old. Go home." So there are two others from another camp who were willing to serve.

TI: From your perspective, are there any open issues in terms of how people view the, the Heart Mountain draft resisters, that are still open, or do you think, from your perspective, that it's time to move forward? Are there, are there still some things that you think still need to be corrected?

TH: I think the full story should, should somehow be told and then contrasting that with the 442nd, tie it all in. And what happened later, as you say, there were a number of us who later served, that it was not quote, unquote "draft resistance," but it was, again, a civil rights (issue)... let's say a thrust (...) to see if we can bring (...) this question into court and then bring it out so that we can... as I said, I think if it really stood out in court and it was really looked at, as today we can see, (yes), we had a real stand, but at the time, the way the courts were going, we didn't.