<Begin Segment 19>

FA: Real briefly, give me the short version, how did the Pacific Citizen, how did the Heart Mountain Sentinel treat the draft resistance at Heart Mountain?

AH: This was really a sore point. The Heart Mountain Sentinel had seemingly complained about the, what they called the "Jap crow," sort of segregated Nisei army. But after saying that, they just buckled under and started to support the idea of a segregated group and knuckle under the party line and then started to criticize anybody who took a different point of view, including Omura. The Pacific Citizen, what hurt the most, was that probably the Nisei journalist and writer in a lot of ways that Omura cared for more than anybody else was Larry Tajiri. And Larry Tajiri had been a progressive, and he was a sidekick of Jimmie Omura's and he was a prototype of what a Nisei journalist could be in Omura's eyes, and then what he became in Omura's eyes was a turncoat. That he was somebody who for convenience took a position that was radically different from the position that Jimmie and many others anticipated he would take. And he became part of the "dirty gang" out of Salt Lake City as far as I think Jimmie was concerned. And he never really could develop the sort of antipathy for him that he did for in other people because there was this residual of affection and friendship and everything that Jimmie had, but he was mightily, mightily disappointed in him. Especially since Larry Tajiri not only took a different position himself but ganged up on the ritual execution of Omura and the resisters. So there was a, there was a strong sort of feeling against what he did, but still a persistence in warm feelings for memories of days past.

FA: We're going to show clippings of the Heart Mountain Sentinel and the Pacific Citizen on screen. Can you characterize for me how did the Pacific Citizen, the Heart Mountain Sentinel treat the issue of draft resistance at Heart Mountain?

AH: The Heart Mountain Sentinel, and it was at a time, this was after Bill Hosokawa had left as the editor of the Sentinel, but his column still appeared in the Heart Mountain Sentinel newspaper and the editorial leadership that he had when he was there, was still there even though he was in Des Moines at that particular time. And the line towards the, what the Rocky Shimpo was saying about, "We need to have at least a partial restoration or a clarification of rights before people accept the draft," they found this anathema. They found this a golden opportunity to be able, and here was a restoration of a right, but the right to be drafted, the right to die for your country, etcetera, even though you're being sort of drafted from behind barbed wire. And so their position was not only nasty, at times it was gratuitously nasty. I think they went around with a meat axe, you know, going after people. I mean, I think the editorials at that particular period are an absolute disgrace. If Omura's editorials represent the high point of Nisei wartime journalism, I think the low point was the Sentinel editorials, and this is ironic because it's always touted that the Sentinel had the best of the evacuation newspapers, of the camp newspapers.

FA: Wow. [Laughs]

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 1998, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.