Densho Digital Archive
Frank Abe Collection
Title: Dave Kawamoto Interview
Narrator: Dave Kawamoto
Interviewers: Frank Abe (primary); Frank Chin (secondary)
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: August 1993
Densho ID: denshovh-kdave-01-0006

<Begin Segment 6>

FC: Was it worth it? Looking back a few years, looking back to what happened to some of the guys, the years of silence, the years of being ignored... how old are you now, anyway?

DK: Three-quarter century.

FC: You're three-quarters of a century old. Was it worth it? Was it worth going to jail, was it worth all grief?

DK: Was it worth it? I would say yes. It was a good experience. For one thing, we got better food than the camp. [Laughs] Yeah, the food was so much better. And clean clothes every, every day. So in a lot of ways it was much better. But one thing that we missed was the women, there was no women, except at the office where I worked. We'd get to look at some women.

FA: You said that you felt that the Fair Play Committee leaders were very gutsy. I want to ask you, in a related way, why do you think that the largest organized resistance occurred at Heart Mountain and not at the other camps?

DK: Well, the... our Heart Mountain camp, I think, was organized. These leaders we had, like I say, they're, they were gutsy. A lot of 'em probably wouldn't ever pass the, the examination, but still they stuck their neck out for their comrades.

FA: Do you think that this situation at Heart Mountain was different from the way it was at the other nine camps, and in what way was it different?

DK: It was different that we were organized and we had a focus. We had a deed to accomplish, and we all stuck together.

FC: You say the leaders held the organization together.

DK: I believe the leaders did hold the organization together.

FC: So what, what Heart Mountain had that the other camps didn't have was leadership?

DK: Leadership, yes.

FC: Could you say that?

DK: I believe the Heart Mountain resisters had good leaders for them to do what they did.

[Interruption]

FC: What was it about Heart Mountain, given that at every camp there were people ready to resist, there were people who objected to the draft being reinstituted for the Nisei. What did Heart Mountain have that led to an organized resistance that the other camps didn't have?

DK: Well, I believe Heart Mountain had, well, good leaders, and they were able to convey that message to the general camp population. So, and plus the fact that they had focus to accomplish what they were out to do.

FC: Did you feel these leaders expressed what you felt about the draft? You agreed with what they, with their stand? You were comfortable with them speaking for you?

DK: Yes, I believe in the leadership of these leaders from the camp, and we had the same common goal, which was to have our constitutional rights restored. And these leaders were providing the message where we can achieve that.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1993, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.