Densho Digital Archive
Frank Abe Collection
Title: James Omura Interview II
Narrator: James Omura
Interviewers: Frank Abe (primary); Frank Chin (secondary)
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: August 1993
Densho ID: denshovh-ojimmie-03-0010

<Begin Segment 10>

FA: For the trial, you were interviewed several times by an FBI agent about your writing. He didn't testify against you, he had no documents to introduce, but after the verdict, did you... tell me about your contact with him afterwards. Tell me his name and what happened.

JO: Well, we were having a recess and we were out there in the back there and the jury was right next, next to me. And I forgot his first name, but his last name was Lawrence. He stepped out of the judge's chamber to get a smoke and happened to look up the hallway and see me. He put away his cigarette, came rushing up the hallway, which is quite a long ways, you know, and when he came to the back, he says to me, "Congratulations, I'm glad you were acquitted." I felt very good about that because this was the FBI agent who had been interrogating me about four or five times in Denver.

FA: And during the trial there was a journalist from the Cheyenne Eagle, Vern Lechliter, who covered the trial. Tell me what happened with him after the trial.

JO: Well, he came to Denver and looked me up and... where I was working, and we had long talk, and he himself was in Denver because he had just got his call, draft call. And I had written a letter to the Wyoming Eagle thanking them for the very unbiased coverage that they gave us, which I consider was helpful to the case. And the Wyoming Eagle wanted to publish it and I gave my permission and they published it. And Lechliter, Vern Lechliter was a person who covered this event and every day, why, he was very close to me and he talked with me after each trial. And at the end of the trial when I was acquitted he says, "If you were convicted," he says, "I wouldn't know what justice was." So he was very sympathetic to us.

FA: Didn't he also make some reference to freedom of the press?

JO: Well, yes he did.

FA: Tell me again, Jimmie. After the trial he said what to you?

JO: Well, he says that... actually, what he said was he wouldn't, he wouldn't know what freedom of the press was. And later on, later on when I was in California, he wrote to me about the disposition, well, about the reversal of the Fair Play Committee case. He was the first one to let me know.

FA: Final question before Frank jumps in. At the trial, tell me about your relationship with the jury, just physically your presence with the jury, and what happened when the jury finally came out with the verdict acquitting you. Tell me that story.

JO: Well, I was very encouraged because during recess, the foreman of the jury smiled and winked at me and I knew I had somebody in the jury room who was influential in my favor. From what I understand, there was only one juryman who was strongly against it, but the rest were very supportive and... otherwise I had no direct connection with the jury. They always passed by and he, the foreman always smiled at me as if encouraging me.

FA: Don't you remember the one juror who wasn't on your side, did you talk to him after the verdict?

JO: I talked to all of the jurymen.

FA: Okay, what was the one thing that the one juror against you say to you? He shook hands, did he shake hands with you?

JO: Yes, he shook hand with me but he said to me... let's see... I think he said, "You're lucky you weren't a member of the committee," something like that.

FA: Okay, he did say that.

JO: Yeah.

FA: "You're lucky, you're lucky that you weren't in camp."

JO: Yeah, that's it.

FA: Can you tell me that again? After the verdict, one of the members of the jury, tell me what happened.

JO: He said to me that, he wasn't very pleasant but he shook my hand and said, "You're lucky you weren't in camp."

FA: Why?

JO: Well, why, so that I wouldn't be part of the committee, Fair Play Committee.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1993, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.