<Begin Segment 22>

FA: Looking back on it now, did you make the right decision?

FE: Oh, yes. No question. The injustice of the whole thing was so great, unfair, I was really angry that the government could keep doing one injustice after another. I felt, I really felt very strongly about this. And what amazed me was that more Niseis didn't feel that way and resist. That's what always surprises me, that more of them didn't resist. I think if it was any other group of people, the Irish, Italians, anybody else, they'd have probably resisted much more. Because the Niseis were so, maybe intimidated by the JACL's policies or the fact that maybe it was in their culture to just take whatever was dished up and not say anything. It's just that in my case, I, after we were wronged, wronged once, the second time around was enough to get up on our hind legs and resist.

FA: If you had to do, if you had it to do over again, would you do it again?

FE: In a minute. [Laughs]

Male voice: What did you really hope to get out of it? When you started the thing, did you expect camp to say, "Yay, let's do it"?

FE: No. It was for my own personal satisfaction. I figured that this is the way I felt.

Male voice: Why form a committee?

FE: Well, it was there. Mr. Okamoto was the person that had all the knowledge about how to go about these things. We were unsophisticated. But he was knowledgeable about these things and we figured he was the man that could put us in the right course. And to do that, we figured he was a one-man committee at that time but we formed it as an organization to seek justice, whatever form we can. Either in camp or through outside connections.

Male voice: But you ended up disappointed.

FE: No.

Male voice: You didn't want more resisters with you?

FE: No, we had enough. Even a dozen would have been enough.

FC: How many volunteers came from Heart Mountain?

FE: From Heart Mountain, very few. I don't recall the number. Do you recall the number, Frank?

FC: Yeah, it was really, it was very small, that's why Robertson was...

FE: Only three hundred came from all the camps, wasn't it?

FA: Eight hundred. From all the camps.

FE: Eight hundred and five from all the camps. From the ten camps, an average of eighty per camp, and Heart Mountain had the fewest.

FA: Jumping back to the interrogation by Guy Robertson, what did you think, how did you, when you saw Grant, your son, doing it in Los Angeles in front of the audience, what was it like to see your son read your own words from the interrogation?

FE: It was very interesting and amusing. Said, "Did I say that?" You know I'd forgotten these, the conversation so, "Gee, I must have been smarter than I thought." [Laughs] I really, I got a kick out of it. It was interesting.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 1998, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.