<Begin Segment 3>

FA: Mike and the JACL, Mike argued against test cases. And he argued so strongly against test cases. Why did he do that?

BH: Well, I think that was brought out today by Cressy. What Mike felt was that a test case would drag on over long period of time, the evacuation would have been long over before you got any kind of hearing. In a case like this it might take years for any kind of disposition through the, through the judicial system. I never talked to Mike about this particular thing but I think that he felt that the time to come, to fight would come later.

FA: But even, even Mr. Yasui, Min Yasui argued that, and said that, "Tyranny, we cannot accept tyranny without resisting." Why did Mike challenge that so strongly?

BH: I don't know.

FA: Why did Min Yasui turn so suddenly from his position that tyranny without resisting is wrong, to suddenly telling the Heart Mountain resisters that they better cooperate or the army would get people with 2 x 4s in prison?

BH: I don't know that he said that, but I do know that he did go to the jail in Cheyenne and tried to persuade the young men who were incarcerated there, tried to persuade them to, "Obey the law, obey the law of the land, obey the selective service law, and fight your case later." He was of the opinion that the men who resisted the draft had a strong moral case but no legal case.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1994, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.