<Begin Segment 14>

FC: Finks. Every organization has them.

FE: Right.

FC: Did the Fair Play Committee have finks?

FE: I don't think we had any finks in our committee. They were all very honorable men.

FC: How did the FBI come to know or believe that it was you that authored that line that got everybody indicted, that got you indicted?

FE: That's a mystery to me. I don't know, unless somebody might of just... because the FBI interrogated all the leaders prior to our indictment, and they all talked. I think Horino was in Tule Lake at that time and at first, at his first hearing with him he said, "I did this, I did that," he did it all by himself. Next time -- no, the first time he denied everything. Then the next time they questioned him he says, "I did it all." He says, "I got tired of them asking me these questions so I told him I did everything." [Laughs] So I don't know, it might have come from him or it might have come from Ben Wakaye or Paul Nakadate. Ben Wakaye was very flustered when the FBI interrogated him. I don't know about the others, but from what I gathered from their, from the declassified FBI files, their interrogation, some of them were pretty flustered, I think, by the FBI. When they questioned me, I didn't give them any information. So that's probably the reason at our trial they had Jack Nishimoto come up and perjure himself to say, "I said this, I did that, I do that," and tell a lot of lies up there.

FC: Was Nishimoto a member of the Fair Play Committee?

FE: No, Nishimoto was sort of a government stooge. He used to take people out on work details and things and he was very close to the administration. And while I was driving a truck and also when I worked at the tofu factory, I did favors for him; I gave him rides, I brought tofu for him. And he used to come over to my place and I'd go over to his place. And I found out later through the declassified FBI files that he was really spying on me. He was looking, when he was at my barrack he was looking around, looking to see if he could see any documents, you know, that was incriminating and things and he would report it to the... what's that camp...

FA: Community analyst?

FE: Community analyst. It was really like an informant for the FBI.

FC: Was he the only witness testifying against you at the trial?

FE: Yes, I think so. But in his case, when he mentioned that I had told Dave Wakamoto -- Dave...

FA: Kawamoto.

FE: ...Kawamoto, that I had said this and that to him, which was a lie, we had Mrs. Kawamoto, who was Dave Kawamoto's mother, come up and testify that I had not talked to her, and said that whatever Jack Nishimoto said was false.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 1998, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.