<Begin Segment 8>

LD: How do you feel about those fellows who refused the draft because they felt that they wanted to make the point about reestablishing their civil rights first before they would sign on? I'm talking about, obviously, the fellows who were locked up, the families who were locked up, who said, "When you restore my civil rights I'll sign up the very next day?"

KG: You mean those people who were sent to Tule Lake?

LD: No, just the fellows who refused to accept the draft who went and served Leavenworth? They went to Leavenworth and then McNeil Island, draft resisters. They were the draft resisters, especially out of Heart Mountain. Heart Mountain had quite a sizeable, seventy-two of them. How do you feel about those men?

KG: Well, I think they must have a good reason for that. They were asked questions about, "Would you renounce your..." but they were Nisei, weren't they? Well, I really don't know what's the reason.

LD: How do you feel, what do you think of the position of the Nisei who were in camp, saying, how do you feel about that group that took the position that they did not want to enlist or be drafted unless the government recognizes their rights as citizens by releasing their families from the camp? When they did that, restored their rights, then they would also carry on.

KG: Well, I think they had their philosophy, especially being, I think, most of them, all of them had been Nisei, they were American citizens. And being American citizens, they were treated without any trial or anything as being enemy aliens. I think they had the right to do that. I have sympathy for them.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1985 The Center for Educational Telecommunications and Densho. All Rights Reserved.