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TI: So let me give some context, because your trial, your draft resistance trial, it's a very important one. 'Cause it was the only one where, as you say, Japanese Americans were exonerated. So your trial was, I believe, in the city of Eureka?

JY: Eureka.

TI: California. And there was a group of you, about how many?

JY: There was twenty-seven of us.

TI: Twenty-seven. And you stood trial for draft evasion. And during the trial, again, you said you were exonerated. But I read a book about this, I believe the judge's name was Judge Goodwin?

JY: Goodman.

TI: Goodman, Goodman. And can you tell me kind of what the court was like, the trial?

JY: Well, the court was, soon as we got there, well, the Monday morning, we stood in front of the judge, all twenty-seven of us, and the judge asked us, "What kind of condition you living under?" Said, "Well, we're under armed guards, fence all around us, and we have twenty-eight guard towers looking at us." "So you're not a free man?" Says, "Nope, we're not a free man." And then after a few other words, then we were all taken back to the jail. And Kawakita, I think was his name, he was one person that stood in place of all of us. He's the one that went back and forth to court. All of us stayed in the jail all of that whole week. And as a young kid, you're afraid, "What the hell's gonna happen to us?" Because we didn't know anything about the Heart Mountain resisters or anybody else, because there was no communication whatsoever. And here we sat there, and to this day, I don't know who my jail partner was. That's how much conversation we had. Anyway, meantime, the judge was told that the case would be draft evader, 'cause he didn't know that until he came there. And he heard about how Eureka was very... what do you say, tough on the Chinese. Told the Chinese, since they finished all the roads and bridges and so forth, they didn't want no more Chinese in Eureka, so they said, "If you don't leave Eureka by a certain day, we'll push you in the ocean or shoot you." And he read that story, so anyway, he made his brief up. Before that, there was a guy named Hill, who was our selected attorney, because the court's select attorney. He had our conviction all written out: "draft evader, broke the law, should be sent to prison." But Goodman says, "Wait a while." Says, "I haven't even heard the case. How could you write such a thing?" So he let him go and brought his own attorney, McGowan, in from San Francisco, and then he stood up for us.

And meantime, big case, the big point of it was that we're, first of all we're not a free citizen. There was no hearing whatsoever like you always heard. And meantime, the draft law stipulates only "free Americans could be drafted into the army." He says, "You're not free, you're behind barbed wire fence, that's what you told me." Said, "Yeah." "And plus, you're not given the due process of law as a citizen that you heard about many times." So, said, "You're exonerated. You can go back."

TI: Now, were you in the court when he said that?

JY: Yes. And so meantime, being the, knowing the local people are very hostile towards the "enemy," they classify him as the enemy because he's releasing the Japanese from the court hearing. So him and the, his court... what is it, recorder, is it?

TI: The clerk, I think?

JY: Whatever it is, this lady, and the court was in second floor, and they parked the car on the first, on the ground floor, had the engine running and all packed. When he made the report, handed the brief to the court clerk, he ran downstairs and got in the car and took off and went home to San Francisco. And it was about ten years ago, eight years ago, I went to Eureka to speak to the high school kids there, and then the lady that was the clerk to the judge came, too. And she remembered me. She was a few years older than I was. And we had a nice talk, you know. She says, "Yeah, it was one of those funny days. I was a young girl," well, she was just out of college, out of UC Boldt Hall. So she, it's interesting to hear her talk about her experience to us.

TI: And so when you're in the courtroom and you see the judge leave right after he gives the verdict and he leaves, what was the reaction in the courtroom? What happened after that?

JY: Well, they just rounded us up and marched us right back to the jail. The thing is, when I went back to see the court, the courtroom, courthouse still stands today. It's chopped up in pieces now, smaller courtroom, but the bench that went forward is still there yet. It's kind of an eerie feeling that you were standing there in front of the judge right there.

TI: Now, were you and the other men surprised that you were exonerated?

JY: Well, not really. We didn't know the works of the law, you know, after all, just a young kid there. But says, "The marshal will take you back to Tule Lake." Then we know we're free. We're not going to jail, right?

SF: Before the decision came up and you decided to resist, weren't you scared or, that you might be sent to prison?

JY: Well, the biggest problem at that time -- see, that was when Tule Lake was in big turmoil. '44, that's when the Hoshidan started getting stronger, and they were really using a lot of muscle tactics to recruit themselves. And so you're all by yourself, you can't talk to nobody because you don't know who they are, 'cause they're all strangers around here because they're from other part of the country besides who do you know? And really don't know nobody. So when I went to the gate to report in, in July, there's one guy that went to school with, another guy that worked with me, so I know two guys out of the twenty-seven. And then this guy I went to school with, his name is Tom Noda, he just passed away recently. "You're one of 'em, too?" I said, "Yeah." "Shit," he says, "a jail's a jail wherever you go. You stay here, go someplace else, that's still a jail." So that was his attitude. "Jail's a jail." "I guess so, Tom," and we all marched down to Eureka.

TI: And so when you got back, then you were just released and just back to work?

JY: Back to work, yeah. Back to work, went back to my construction job.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.