Densho Digital Archive
Emiko and Chizuko Omori Collection
Title: Frank Emi Interview
Narrator: Frank Emi
Interviewers: Emiko Omori (primary), Chizu Omori (secondary)
Location: San Francisco, California
Date: March 20, 1994
Densho ID: denshovh-efrank-01-0007

<Begin Segment 7>

EO: So tell us about your association with Kiyoshi Okamoto.

FE: Well, actually, I can't remember the details, but we did get together with him a few times now and then. And not very much until this issue of the draft came up. I think he was more active in trying to get the conditions in the camp changed for the better, such as better food and things like that. And early in 1944... should we get into the draft thing?

EO: Just to finish up with the questionnaire, then, so Okamoto was advocating people saying "no," or take your stand?

FE: Actually, he wasn't advocating any particular answers to the questions. He was telling the people to, "Consider your predicament, consider what happened to you before you answer these questions." And some of us, we didn't have to consider. We already knew what happened to us and we were very angry about it. That's why we didn't like the questions that were in that questionnaire, 27 and 28. So we had no problem about how to answer these questions, you know, but some of the other people might have.

EO: So, so you didn't really encounter any problems with the administration because you had qualified answers?

FE: Yes, I had, actually, I had about one, two... two hearings, three hearings with the project director on that. And on the...

EO: Well, what did they consist of?

FE: On the second hearing I had, they asked me if I wanted to keep the question 28 at, under the same thing. In that case they were figuring on sending me to Tule Lake. So at that second hearing, I think I told them that question 28 I will answer "yes" without qualifications except that I want them to understand that I was never, had never pledged allegiance to the Emperor of Japan. That's why, I probably told them that it was kind of an asinine question to ask. So at that time I answered question 28 "yes" and they asked me about question 27 and I said, "No, that's, I won't change that because I can't answer that under these conditions." I says, "Before I volunteer or go into combat duty I would like to know what my citizenship status was, whereby my constitutional rights for me and my family." So that I didn't change and fortunately, I guess, that was enough to keep from being sent to Tule Lake. Although it seemed like it really didn't matter too much how you answered that, because Mr. Okamoto and Sam Horino were shipped to Tule Lake. The had answered "yes-yes," but they were still shipped to Tule Lake, as being "troublemakers."

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 1994, 2003 Densho and Emiko Omori. All Rights Reserved.