<Begin Segment 9>

Q: While we're on that, can you talk about the JACL's role in the internment, also Mike Masaoka's statement about not supporting Korematsu and Yasui and the antagonism in the Japanese American community against the JACL because of their role?

PI: The Japanese American Citizens League was in a very uncomfortable position. Mike Masaoka, who was their director at the time, was a young guy, didn't have much experience in politics. He was a very forceful person but he didn't have anywhere to look for leadership or guidance. The older Issei were all in the internment camps. The JACL's position was that in order to prevent more serious harm to Japanese Americans, violence against them, they would go into the camps. One consequence of this was they refused to support the legal challenges. The JACL issued a statement that repudiated Min Yasui's curfew challenge. They refused to support Fred's case as well. Inside the camps, the JACL became the focus of a lot of conflict, even violence. JACL members had informed to the FBI on people they considered dangerous or disloyal. The informers were called "inu," the Japanese word for "dog." A lot of them were harassed, several were beaten up. Out of one of these instances, there was a riot in which the military pol ice shot and killed two people. The JACL, I think, was in an almost impossible position. Mass resistance was unthinkable, there simply weren't enough people, there simply wasn't enough leadership or experience. It wasn't like the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, where you had a real community base and support. Having decided to cooperate, they were in the position then of being identified with the government, and as conditions in the camp became more difficult and people began to feel that there had to be some protest, the JACL became the focus for a lot of hostility.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 1983, 2010 Densho and Steven Okazaki. All Rights Reserved.