<Begin Segment 7>

FA: Going back to the trial, at the trial, those funny things happened, then the verdict comes down, the verdict is guilty, how did that make you feel?

MK: I felt real bad because maybe I was naive, but I felt that we had a very strong case. After all, we were put into a concentration camp, denied our constitutional rights, then asked to fight for the very things that were denied us. That's the main point I'm trying to say. And that we have every right to protest. Article One in the Bill of Rights says that if the government denies you the right of American citizenship, that you have a right to redress it. And nowhere in the Constitution does it say that good public image is more important than constitutional rights. If people could find that, let me know.

FA: You did go to prison, a lot of the resisters were told that they'd be beaten with two-by-fours or beaten by other inmates. What was your experience?

MK: Well, I didn't fear that. Naturally I was naive to say that I feared, I didn't fear going to jail. Everybody feared, we were brought up that way. We didn't believe that going to jail was the right thing, but under the circumstances, when something like this happens, your citizenship status is at stake, I'm willing to take that chance, to have to go to prison to fight for my rights.

FA: When you went to prison, were you beaten with two-by-fours?

MK: No way. We were treated very good. People respected us over there.

FA: Why?

MK: Because the camp we went to had lot of Jehovah Witnesses, conscientious objectors, they understood what we stood for.

[Interruption]

FC: Are you familiar with the principle that as an American citizen you are innocent until proven guilty?

MK: Yes. I am familiar with those words because I learned them in school, that we are innocent until proven guilty. But we were never given the chance at court because the government could never find us guilty of anything. I've said that over and over again. That's why they wouldn't let us go to court to prove our innocence, and that I always say that in American law, the punishment must fit the crime. Okay, what crime did we commit to be punished so severely? Nobody has ever answered that question to me.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 1993, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.