<Begin Segment 3>

FA: Before the war, were you involved in political activism, Frank?

FE: Nope. Not a bit.

FA: Uh...

FE: Very, very unsophisticated in the matters of laws and things, as I think, as we all were. Especially the country-reared people.

FA: Did you do judo?

FE: Yeah. I was doing judo.

FA: How did you get started? What was that about?

FE: Well, I started when I was about fourteen. I had been going to the San Fernando judo dojo for about a year. I wanted to start but my dad didn't like the teacher, so he wouldn't let me get started, you know. He finally gave in and I got started when I was about fourteen, and I've been doing it ever since.

FA: What about judo appealed to you?

FE: I guess the body contact. I like contact sports. I like football, you know. Even before I went to high school, we used to have sandlot football, and I loved tackling these guys, you know. [Laughs] In fact, coming back to more recent times when we were in Leavenworth, we used to play touch football there, you know. There's some big black guys there, and we used to play right with them and their touch football was almost like tackle football. And I remember one time I blocked one guy out -- he was a real big guy, but I blocked him out with a flying block and he went on his back and he got up looking stunned, you know, and it was really funny.

FA: Did you regard judo... do you think your judo practice make you less American? More Japanese, less American?

FE: Actually, I don't think it had any effect because you go to judo practice, you work out, and when you leave, you, you forget all about it. I don't think it had any effect on your thinking one way or another.

FA: And, so what did you think when you heard us show you this document, this questionnaire? You know, if you're in judo, two points against. Football, one point four.

FE: Well, I think this is probably some misguided thinking... the people that put these questions together. Because especially being, judo being a Japanese martial art, they assumed that it would maybe cause nationalistic feelings towards Japan, I think, which was not the case at all. Now, maybe some of the Kibei boys that were in it, it might have tended to affect them more that way, you know. But the Niseis, actually, it didn't have any effect.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1993, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.