<Begin Segment 16>

FA: Heart Mountain had the only organized resistance of the ten concentration camps, one of the largest organized resistance, anyway. Why do you think that was?

MW: Well, I suppose it was because Mr. Inouye, Frank Inouye...

FC: No, Okamoto...

FA: No, Frank Inouye and Kiyoshi Okamoto.

MW: Kiyoshi Okamoto. Inouye started it.

FA: Yeah, Frank Inouye.

MW: You want to start again?

FA: Why do you think Heart Mountain had the largest organized resistance?

MW: Well, of course, I have not investigated the Poston resistance. I know that one hundred and one resisters there were given a $1 fine by Judge Ling. I am wondering if a Chinese judge could have been living at that time. You have your doubts. Well, anyway... Heart Mountain. Resistance at Heart Mountain began at the time of registration. Mr. Inouye, a Hawaiian, and generally the Hawaiians, as Mr. Dillon Myer used to say, are the "troublemakers." He was very conscious of his rights because he had been brought up in a more equal society. Which reminds me of Mr., Senator Inouye, who I had the privilege of meeting a couple of months ago. And he said that he visited Rohwer. When he saw the people confined there he decided, "I don't think I would have volunteered. I would not have wanted to volunteer if my parents and I had been locked up. Those people were there."

So, back to Heart Mountain. This consciousness had been instilled during the registration, no, a year later. January 1944 you get selective service instituted. That really got them boiling. "How dare they? I mean, it's one thing to volunteer, but you cannot force us to do something that is illegal." And they considered it unconstitutional and illegal and wrongheaded and they were not going to abide by an order which they did not respect. They would prefer to go to jail. And can you imagine, young fellows making such hard decisions? I cannot get over it.

FC: To your knowledge... you describe Frank Emi having the guts and the eloquence to write these bulletins and to openly declare that, "If we are called, we will not accept the order." Any other camp, any other camp have a Frank Emi? A combination of charisma and eloquence and... that could draw the people together.

MW: I don't think there was another camp that produced a Frank Emi. I know at Amache there was a small group, but they didn't have the organization. Heart Mountain, the Heart Mountain resisters wanted to make it an all-camp revolt. It did not succeed. But you're right about Frank Emi. There, Frank Emi was alone. Of course, on the outside we had a James Omura, the Thomas Paine of Nikkei journalism. Yes, I would compare Frank Emi in camp to James Omura outside of camp.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 1998, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.