Densho Digital Archive
Frank Abe Collection
Title: James Omura Interview I
Narrator: James Omura
Interviewers: Frank Abe (primary); Frank Chin (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: December 9, 1990
Densho ID: denshovh-ojimmie-02-0013

<Begin Segment 13>

FA: What happened? Everyone keeps saying the JACL informed on the community.

JO: They did.

FA: Okay, tell me, what did the JACL do, Jimmie?

FA: Well, they, there are ample documents in the Office of the Naval Intelligence in San Diego which is Naval District Eleven...

FA: I don't want to know about documents. What did you see?

JO: What?

FA: At the time in the community, did you see any informing activities?

JO: Well, you... if they were going to inform, they're not going to inform in public. That's why they're informing, is because it's something that is between them and the United States government, not with the public. We have no knowledge, actual knowledge, except on the record. The record shows that they did do so.

FA: Okay, how does the record show that from what you've seen?

JO: Well, the records of the Eleventh Naval District shows repeated, repeated reports into the naval district about these people who were generally Issei farmers, and they got picked up. We know from one of the informer, one of the lead informers, Tokutaro Nishimura Slocum, who says publicly, and he testified before Congress that he led the FBI agent in a raid of the Japanese Little Tokyo.

FA: If America was at war with Japan, why wasn't that a patriotic thing to do?

JO: Well, I think your answer is in the fact that the United States government did not indict us or convict or try a single Japanese American. There's your answer. It's that so many of the Japanese Americans were informed upon because of their positions or because of personal reasons. And one of the reasons I'm very critical of the JACL is because I'm one of the persons who was informed upon. And we have the records to prove it through the Freedom of Information Act.

FA: Okay, what did they do, what did they say, who did they tell? What did they say?

JO: Oh, they reported me into the FBI, first to the attorney general, but the FBI entered it and investigated me. Unfortunately for them I got a white paper or clean bill of health.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1990, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.