<Begin Segment 13>

FC: At McNeil Island, did you meet any of the FPC boys?

JA: You mean the Fair Play?

FC: Yeah.

JA: Yes. See, they were in camp -- I mean, they were in the camp, meaning farm.

[Interruption]

FC: What did you think of them? How did you, where did you meet them?

JA: Okay, really, I and Frank Emi were communicating back and forth. I wanted to find out what their strategy was. And he was saying he's taken the American stand: "I'm an American, and you did this, this, this, this. So we won't go until it's straightened out. Well, I thought that that wasn't enough. Now, Gordon and Yasui and Korematsu, they claimed American, and told the government, "You can't do," and they said, "If you're an American, you do whatever we tell you." So when I, during the correspondence between Emi and myself, I said, "Okay, then if you're going to go the American," and that's what they were doing, so I said, "Okay, I'll take the alien side." And so it's not that I didn't know what they were doing. And James Omura was the in-between people. I was getting the communication through Jim, or directly from Emi.

FC: You read the Rocky Shimpo?

JA: Yeah. But when I found out they were going to violate me, then I had to go on my own. I, the time was of the essence, and I didn't have time communicating with Emi or with Jim.

FC: Were you communicating with Emi before you saw Yasui? Or was that after?

JA: I'd say after. Because I heard of the Fair Play Committee. Now, that is, it all within weeks or so, so I can't say before or after. But I was in communication with Emi.

FC: So about this same time you were in communication with Emi.

JA: Yeah, right. And therefore they took one, so I took the other. So I just wanted to make sure with Frank -- that's one of the reasons I went down to California, was to listen to what they had to say all over again. And for that reason I took the alien status. And my strategy was that, that I disclosed to Min Yasui. And I didn't really -- I wanted, for sure, the document from the embassy and it was from WRA accepting me to be sent to Crystal City, Texas, to be deported as a repatriate. So once I got that, I was ready. Then this letter went from Stafford to the draft board as a suggestion as, and as a favor.

FC: And Stafford was...

JA: He was the director for Minidoka. I think it was either Stafford or the leave officer.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1993, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.