Densho Digital Archive
Frank Abe Collection
Title: Michi Weglyn Interview
Narrator: Michi Weglyn
Interviewers: Frank Abe (primary); Frank Chin (secondary)
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: February 20, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-wmichi-01-0012

<Begin Segment 12>

FC: What is the standing of the people segregated to Tule Lake in the Japanese American society? Are they respected? Are they proud of it? Do they respect themselves? What is the effect on Japanese American morale?

MW: It's very difficult to find Tule Lakers who really have that much curiosity. I wonder sometimes whether it's that they don't want to speak about it. It is so fascinating to me and I would think that it would be to, to a real Tulean to say, "My cousin was in that stockade." And do you know that we had six tanks that guarded that compound of Tule Lake? They held their exercises daily, showing their might. Can you imagine a concentration camp in Europe that had six tanks guarding it? It's almost unbelievable. And I would love to run into a Tule Laker who would explain to me how it felt to see tanks right outside the gate. And to think that this was free America, liberty and justice for all. And to know that you were surrounded not only by this escape-proof gate, wired fence, but you had the advantage also of huge armament. You know, personnel carriers and all that.

Yes, I don't understand the Tuleans. They do not want to look into their past. They don't want to come across their fathers' names, apparently, or their brothers' names. I have lots and lots of names and I think to myself, "Oh my gosh, I hope the son or daughter doesn't look at this. It would be embarrassing." Because as in every camp, you had those who were collaborating with the camp commandant, and there was a lot of that sort of thing in Tule Lake. To the extent that Mr. Nomo, who headed up the, that canteen, he was murdered and to this day that murder is unsolved.

But yes, there has never been a dialogue within the Tulean community as you have among the Fair Play Committee of Heart Mountain, they get together and they share stories and you learn new things about Tamesa, about Inouye. And you want to know, "Are they still alive?" It's fascinating to go deeper and deeper into what really happened and truly you will, there's nothing like going to the archives because then you find out, oh, So-and-so from Block so-and-so was in cahoots with Best? I mean, I can't believe it. But, you know, that sort of thing is fascinating.

FC: The popular belief is that Japanese America itself asked the government to restore the draft to give them the opportunity to sacrifice, prove their sacrifice in blood, to prove their loyalty. Did the Japanese Americans want the draft more than they wanted the rest of their civil rights?

MW: Well, you know very well that that was the genesis of the, one of the genesis of the Manzanar riot. They had a meeting of the, of the camp representatives and the one, and there were a couple of JACL leaders who represented Manzanar. And apparently it meant a great deal to that organization that selective service be instituted. Not voluntary enlistment. I have a document dated March 1942 that was right after Executive Order 9066 was issued, that was February 19th and around March the 5th there's a document saying, "We ought to find out just how many draft-age Japanese Americans are in camp." So apparently already the army was thinking in terms of the possibility of using that manpower. After all, they saw those Japanese myths.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1998, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.