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BH: Well, hardly. I helped him write his book. That's what he did.

FA: Well from, from writing his book and being his friend, why was Mike Masaoka and the JACL the best people to lead Japanese America at the time of the war?

BH: Who else was there? There was no one else. JACL has been accused of seizing power. There was no power to seize. The Issei community had fought the JACL over the years, suddenly there was no Issei leadership. The entire Japanese American community was without leadership. And I don't think the JACL really wanted all that responsibility, but they saw a vacuum that somehow had to be filled. And the federal officials gravitated toward JACL because they saw no one else.

FA: But Jimmy Sakamoto, Ken Matsumoto, were all very proud of the fact that they helped give the names of Issei leaders to the FBI, in effect informing on the Issei leadership.

BH: I don't know about Matsumoto. I think Jimmy was the kind of fellow who, when asked about so-and-so would say, "Yes, I know the man, and this is what I think of him." He was very direct. There were, there were very difficult questions. You might say, "Do you know Mr. Yamada?" And Jimmy or someone else might say, "Yes indeed, I know Mr. Yamada. I think he's a good man, he's good to his family, he's good to the community. And he's been in this country a long time, and he would not hurt the United States." And then the question might be: "But what if the Japanese landed this espionage team here? Would Mr. Yamada -- and they came to Mr. Yamada's home. Would he pick up the phone and call the FBI? Or might he give his people shelter overnight and say, 'Get out, you're going to cause me trouble'?" Those were variations of what might be considered loyal or disloyal.

FA: Do you think it was a mistake even to give that kind of information to the FBI?

BH: I'm sorry, I didn't get the question.

FA: Was it still a mistake to give that kind of information to the FBI?

BH: I don't know. This is a hypothetical situation. I don't know that it was ever asked.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 1994, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.