Densho Digital Archive
Frank Abe Collection
Title: Frank Emi Interview II
Narrator: Frank Emi
Interviewer: Frank Abe (primary); Frank Chin (secondary)
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: January 30, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-efrank-03-0005

<Begin Segment 5>

FA: In February, the WRA administered the leave clearance questionnaire. Tell me about that.

FE: Oh yeah, when that questionnaire first came out, it seemed to be very simple. It says, I think statement of Japanese, statement of American citizen of Japanese ancestry. It didn't seem like, there was nothing serious about it, but if you looked carefully, the top logo it said "Selective Service System." And on the left-hand corner of that sheet it said, "Local board, date stamp." And all the questions were innocuous except 27 and 28. Question 27 asked, "Are you willing to attend, join the army and go in combat, combat duty wherever ordered?" And if you answered "yes," it was an implication that you volunteered because of the selective service system emblem and everything.

On question 28, I think, wasn't the exact wording but it said would you pledge allegiance to the United States of America, etcetera. Which was okay, there was no problem there, but then it was like in two parts. The second part said, "And will you forswear allegiance to the Emperor of Japan and to any other foreign government or organization?" And if the Nisei answered "yes" to that, it seemed like you had at one time or another pledged allegiance to the emperor of Japan, which was not the case in most, most all the Niseis. Now for an Issei to answer "yes" to question 28 would make them a stateless person because they were unable to become citizens by the laws that existed at that time. So those questions to me was, the more I looked at it, the more stupid it seemed to me so I thought it was not only stupid but sort of demeaning for us to have to answer that so I answered it in this manner: I said, "Under the present conditions and circumstances, I am unable to answer these questions." Which was my feeling at that time.

FA: Tell me about how the camp reacted as a whole, all your friends.

FE: I think, oh, to follow, follow that story, I printed up, hand-printed my answers on sheets of paper with the help of my brother and put down suggested answers to questions 27 and 28 and we went around camp tacking it up in public places around camp, which was my first venture into activism at that time.

FA: Why did you do that?

FE: Well, I felt so strongly that these questions were very unfair and stupid and pretty hard for people to answer these correctly, if they answered it "yes," they would, as I said before, it would go one way, if they answered it "no" it would make, turn them out to be disloyal. And so I figured the best way was to not answer it. Or like in my case, just put, "I am unable to answer these questions under these circumstances."

FA: What were some of your suggested answers?

FE: Well, the answer that I gave was the one that said, "Under the present conditions and circumstances I am unable to answer these questions." Which was the, which was the answer I gave to both question 27 and 28.

FA: Again, were people... you, I don't... you went out of your way to post these answers for people.

FA: Yes, I felt that maybe some of these internees won't be able to answer this, wouldn't know how to answer, they would be confused, so I thought this might give them a little hint on how to answer these questions.

[Interruption]

FA: The Heart Mountain Sentinel, one of the editorials said that the people were out there in the latrines posting these flyers, working in the dead of night. You remember that editorial?

FE: Right, uh-huh. Yeah, they, the Sentinel came out and said a lot of things about us that weren't true. We, what we did was do everything openly and in public. So I don't think that the Sentinel, the Heart Mountain Sentinel was dealing very fairly with those of us that felt that this application of... now are we getting into the draft?

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1998, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.