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-03-0009

<Begin Segment 9>

FA: Tell me about your interrogation by Guy Robertson.

FE: Well, I had three interrogations with Guy Robertson, who was the project director. And I had one interrogation with him when I and Min Tamesa attempted to walk out of the camp. Now, talking about this camp walkout, we just wanted to establish that we were not free citizens, that if we attempted to walk out, the guard said he would shoot us. So that's the reason we did that. And as far as the other interrogations was for leave clearance. And in the interrogations, Guy Robertson tried very hard to get me to either change my stand and agree to, to the draft or, in fact, he tried to pin me down saying that, "If I were to give you notice for the draft, would you go to the draft now?" Which I said, "I'll go as soon as I get my rights back as a citizen."

FA: What was Guy Robertson trying to get you to say?

FE: He was trying to get me to either say "yes" or "no" so that he could deport me to Tule Lake. And I knew that was his strategy so I tried not to fall into it.

FA: What kind of person was Guy Robertson?

FE: Well, he tried to make himself look very fair, but that was just a facade. He was one of those very sort of a, I would consider maybe a bully type of a person that wanted to maneuver you into a position where he can put his agenda into being.

FA: He tried to manipulate you.

FE: Yeah.

FA: What, I read about this Fair Play Committee offered a resolution to have Guy Robertson fired.

FE: You know, I wasn't privy to that. I think that was proposed by Paul Nakadate and Okamoto. Mostly Paul, I think, he did that. Also another thing he did was send James Omura a news release that was not exactly true.

FA: What?

FE: That's why after that I took over the press releases. I can't recall exactly what the topic was, but it could have been about the ousting of Guy Robertson, which the Fair Play Committee as a whole didn't take up. That's why I wasn't aware of it, he just sent that out.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 1998, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.