<Begin Segment 3>

FA: You were in Minidoka, you heard of Min Yasui.

JA: Uh-huh.

FA: What did you hear about Min Yasui?

JA: Well, I heard of him as being one of the three who fought evacuation or curfew or whatever they did. That's the thing. And I thought, "Well, hey, gee. They got something." And in my case, at the time, when they were fighting the government, I was too busy closing off my dad's business, signing off my school, university, and doing odds and ends. Oh yeah, the real estate, we had to get some lessees. And it was so... that Mr. Dolby, he was the acting consul-general for Spain on behalf of Japanese aliens, and he became the one that took over my property.

[Interruption]

FA: So you're in Minidoka, and you hear about Min Yasui's test case.

JA: Uh-huh.

FA: Tell me again, what'd you think about that?

JA: Well, I thought it was good. I thought he had, these guys had a lot of gumption, and from what was going on in camp, by the time he got back I wanted to meet with whoever. And the one that came back to camp was Min Yasui.

FA: So then what happened?

JA: Well, I tried to get an appointment, I went over to meet with him, he wasn't in. So I probably went a few times until I did get the appointment to meet with him. Yeah.

FA: Then what?

JA: And then what I wanted to do was to talk about what was going on in camp, and this is how I felt. And I thought that here, here we are in camp, and there, they called for the volunteers, then also called, they're reinstating, you know, the selective service. And I just couldn't see myself going along with that knowing what I did know. That we as a -- what shall I say -- evacuee, have no obligation for military service, and that was the main point. The main point was that I am an alien, okay? Therefore I did not have any obligation.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1993, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.