<Begin Segment 22>

CO: So, tell us about the trial. So, let's see, I wanted to get to the arrest. How did that happen?

JO: Well, it was a coincidence that I woke up that Friday, very early in the morning at 4:30 planning to finish my work and then take my show dog somewhere up in the mountain valley for a run. Then -- this is still dark, and I'm sure it was before 6 o'clock, they said it was 6 o'clock -- that there was a knock on the door. And I opened the door wondering who would be knocking on my door at this odd hour of the morning. And there was a man standing there who identified himself as an FBI agent. And he said the people behind him are also FBI agents. It turned out there was one other FBI agent and two marshals. And he says, he read the... because it was dark, one of the men behind him shone a flashlight on a piece of paper this man held up and he read to me the indictment on the conspiracy charge and told me that I was under arrest. He went through everything in the boxes, all my possessions, trying to find documents. And, of course, the FBI would give you an index of what they took later on. And it also said that while they were inspecting my things they ran across this paper from the district court legally changing my name.

And they took me down to the marshal's office, fingerprinted me and sent me up to the top floor where they have holding cages. And I was placed in one of those single cages that stands by itself. There were two like that. And they wouldn't allow me to contact anyone. I asked repeatedly for opportunity to make one phone call. They refused that. About one o'clock they took me out and took me to the municipal building where I was more or less brought before the commissioner. We couldn't tell exactly what was going on because I was sitting in the middle of the courtroom. And the front half of that courtroom was in darkness, whereas where I was sitting was in full sunlight. After a long conversation with someone to his right, the men straightened out -- I couldn't see him distinctly, and he asked me, he says, "Mr. Omura," he said, "Do you know what you are charged with?" So I said, "Yes." And that was it. We never knew, he never gave the decision, or anything. I was taken back to my cell in the marshal's office. Twenty minutes later I was taken out again and spirited to Cheyenne and placed in solitary.

[Interruption]

CO: So you were just saying how the arrests were coordinated.

JO: Yes, the arrest was all coordinated. The boys at Tule Lake, that is Sam Horino and Okamoto and the fellows at Heart Mountain and myself in Denver, so that we wouldn't get together and notify each other. This is in the documents requested by the prosecution.

CO: So what happens now that you're in solitary confinement? Were you ever able to get a lawyer?

JO: Yes. I, well, my lawyer didn't come up to see me until the following Friday, which meant something like seven, about twelve or thirteen days, and I'm in solitary confinement all this time. And when he did come I mentioned it to him and he says, he says, "You take that up with our Wyoming attorney when he comes Monday." That sort of riled me, because this is my primary attorney. He doesn't care that I'm in solitary, not allowed anything. Now don't forget, I'm not allowed anything except cigarette. That's what they told me. I didn't have a towel, I didn't have anything to write on, anything to read, and it burned me up. [Laughs] When my Wyoming attorney came the following Monday morning, that's the 18th day, actually, he was real disturbed, real angry. He went immediately into the sheriff's office and lodged a complaint. But nothing happened immediately. It was the next afternoon before I was moved in with the rest of the Fair Play Committee in the east block.

CO: Was that the first time you met them?

JO: That's the first time I met them.

CO: Then, did you talk? What happened?

JO: Well, they greeted me. They knew who I was so they greeted me. And the man who took me into tow was Paul Nakadate. And I had a bunk right under him. And they were allowed paper and pencil and stuff like that. So he loaned me a pad and a pencil. Mine were all taken away. I don't know what happened to them. Never saw it again. But anyway, I went to the other end of the block where Okamoto was and the moment I came over, he got out, he was lying down in his bunk, but he jumped up and sat down on it. And the first thing that he said to me was that he was the first man to ask for reparation. He's telling that to me and I already have on record that I had asked for reparation long before him. And I said to him, "You know, I don't believe that's true," I says to him. "That there may be many people we never heard of who may have asked for reparation." I said, "I don't know this," I said, "You don't know that. So you're not the first." That sort of threw him off. He got back into his bunk and that was the end of the interview. I never got another word out of him.

CO: Did you meet Frank Emi then?

JO: Yes, I met Frank Emi when I first came in, but he wasn't there long because he got bailed out. So I didn't get to know him well.

CO: Were you up for bail?

JO: We couldn't get bail. We were in a dither about trying to get bail. No bonding place in Denver would touch a draft case, so it wasn't until Wirin, that's the Fair Play Committee's lawyer, contacted Cooper of the Arizona bail-bond agency in Phoenix, that Mr. Cooper came and bailed me out toward the end of September. I'd been in there since July 20th.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 1994, 2003 Densho and Emiko Omori. All Rights Reserved.