Letters between Lawson Inada and Paul Tsuneishi. Short bio of Kiyoshi Okamoto. CONSCIENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION, by Frank Emi. Shot: Frank Emi and Resisters and Wives and Friends at Tokyo Gardens Restaurant – Frank Emi raises a toast. Shot: Roosevelt – Selective Service – the Jar of SS Lot Numbers. FX: Title: October,1940. Shot: More Jap Planes! Jap Planes Roar out of Frame. Army Brass Hats Testing M-1 Garand – FX Title: The Army adopted a new service weapon: The M-1 Garand, the world’s first self-loading, or semi-automatic rifle. Production began. FX: Title: Japanese Americans serving in the U.S. Army were segregated, disarmed and distrusted. Insert: Sign in Store – “White Trade Only.” Insert: Sign in Store – “I Am an American.” FX: Title: Mike M. Masaoka, Japanese American Citizens League. Narrator: “One Japanese American leader felt that wartime white racism would become so extreme, it would void the Constitution. And Japanese America would have no choice, but to appease the white racists, or be shot down in the streets.” FX: Title: Until the new M-1 rifle is available, the Army trains with dummy rifles that can neither chamber nor fire real bullets. Shot: JAP Planes Take off from Carrier to Join other JAP Planes in Flight. Narrator: “Japanese America knew the war was coming.” Insert: Masthead: “Publisher James Omura” Narrator: “James Omura saw no need for the Japanese Americans to surrender their civil rights to either inflames white racists or wartime hysteria.” James Omura – “I told’em to stand up for their civil rights. If they’re not willing to stand up and fight for their civil rights, they don’t deserve them.” Narrator: “And the Japanese American Citizens League answered: Bill Hosokawa – “When you have soldiers pointing a gun at your face, you don’t think about your constitutional rights.” Narrator: “Japanese America is about to face a choice: Whether to follow the JACL policy of winning American sympathy by making good publicity, or, to test the constitutionality of racially selective laws with acts of civil disobedience...breaking a law, to create a test case.” KABOOM! PEARL HARBOR! FX: Title: Ben Kuroki, Sgt. USAAF, WWII. Mike Masaoka – “On Pearl Harbor Day, Dec. 7th, 1941, I happened to be in North Platte Nebraska, talking to a group of Japanese Americans regarding the necessity for organizing to stress our citizenship and our loyalty to the United States.” Ben Kuroki – “About halfway through the meeting, police came and arrested Mike, took, and put him in jail in North Platte.” Narrator: “Masaoka phones a U.S. Senator and is released.” Narrator: “That night in Hawaii, and cities on the mainland, the FBI arrests the leaders of the Japanese communities. The JACL is now the only spokesman of Japanese American opinion with the government’s ear.” Narrator: “Across the country, the Nisei response to Pearl Harbor is the same. Ben Kuroki: a farmer’s son in Hershey, Nebraska. “I just felt that Pearl Harbor was terrible, and I think I felt like a lot of the Caucasian kids that wanted to avenge what happened at Pearl Harbor.” Narrator: “Dave Kawamoto is an NCAA wrestling champion at San Jose State College.” Dave Kawamoto: “I went up to the officer that was registering, and I told him I would like to register in the Air Corps.” Ben Kuroki: “And it was the next morning that my brother Fred and I decided that we were going to enlist in the service.” The officer replied to Dave Kawamoto, “We’re not taking Japs!” Narrator: “With the help of his Senator, Kuroki joined the Air Corps the following year and fulfilled the dram of many Japanese Americans. “One month after Pearl Harbor, the government changes the draft status of Japanese Americans from 1-A to 4-C, alien ineligible for the draft.” FX: Title: FEBRUARY 19, 1942. One month later, PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066. This order ENABLES the ARMY to BAN all PERSONS of JAPANESE ANCESTRY from the WEST COAST. The Army declares the west coast Military Exclusion Zone No. 1 and orders all persons of Japanese ancestry out. Insert: Mike Masaoka Final Report: P53: ECU: Scan lines: See “Suicide Battalion”. Mike Masaoka (actor). To assure the skeptics that the members of the “suicide Battalion” would remain loyal, the family and friends of the volunteers would place themselves in the hands of the government as “hostages.” When this idea was informally discussed with a high military official, we were informed that it was not the practice of the government to require “hostages” or to sponsor such “suicide battalions”. Narrator: “James Omura appears before a Congressional committee to denounce JACL leadership and the coming Evacuation.” James Omura: “Has the Gestapo come to America? Have we not risen righteous anger at Hitler’s mistreatment of the Jews? Then is it not incongruous that citizen Americans of Japanese descent should be similarly persecuted and mistreated?” Narrator: “There were rumors the JACL fingered people to be picked up by the FBI before Dec. 7th. There were rumors Mike Masaoka, the young JACL leader, was a government intelligence agent.” Insert: DeWitt Memo on Segregation Plan – Close On: Signature Pan Down Names. Narrator: “According to this memo from the three-star General commanding the Western Defense Command, the rumors were true.” DeWitt, Lieutenant General J.L. Memo t0: Chief of Staff, U.S. Army; Subject: “PLAN FOR IMMEDIATE SEGREGATION OF JAPANESE AMERICANS’ DECEMBER 17, 1942. This memo, initialed by Karl R. Bendetsen, Chief of Aliens Division, gives Mike M. Masaoka a “G-2” agent of Army Intelligence designation. Followed up with specific procedures memo (pages 10 – 12). FX: Title: Prof. Roger Daniels, Univ. of Cincinnati; “The policy of the JACL was to collaborate with the government, to collaborate with some of the chief oppressors of the Japanese American people. And you can certainly justify this as a political tactic. It’s very difficult to justify it as a moral position.” Clifford Uyeda; “They were really a government agent, that’s all they were. They were not really protecting or looking after the welfare of the Japanese Americans.” JAPANESE RELOCATION. Narrator: “In the eyes of the newly created War Relocation Authority (WRA), the Nisei seem to accept the leadership of the JACL. FX: Title: Milton Eisenhower; “The evacuees cooperated wholeheartedly. The many loyal among them felt that this was a sacrifice they could make in behalf of America’s war effort.” Narrator: “From posting of the first military orders, there is resistance. Three men disobey the curfew and evacuation orders and become test cases in court.” – Min Yasui, in Portland, Fred Korematsu, in San Leandro, CA, and especially, the boyish Gordon Hirabayashi, in Seattle, appall the JACL with the popularity of their civil disobedience – especially among Japanese American farm families. Insert: Book: Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of the Concentration Camps, by Michi Nishiura Weglyn. Narrator: “The U.S. Army orders 120,000 Japanese Americans to be evacuated from the west coast. And interned in concentration camps. Into each camp went ten thousand persons of Japanese ancestry. The government’s WAR, called these camps ‘Relocation Centers’.” Michi Weglyn; “Of course the Army did take care that the Japs would be made to suffer. They chose the worst places, the hell holes that are to be found in this beautiful United States.” RESISTERS. Narrator: “These men refused to be drafted from concentration camps. In all, 315 Japanese Americans from all camps refused the draft. 263 served time in a federal penitentiary. Only the resistance at Heart Mountain was organized. They call themselves THE FAIR PLAY COMMITTEE. The leaders of Japanese America called them cowards, draft dodgers, traitors.” FX: Young Jimmy Omura and Masthead of Rocky Shimpo. Narrator: “This man, gave a voice to resistance, wherever it was occurring, in his Denver newspaper. Frank Emi led the Fair Play Committee from protest to resistance. These men have been pariahs in polite Japanese American society for fifty years.” Narrator: “Did the draft resisters deny that it was the duty of all citizens to answer the draft when called? What kind of citizens were they with no charges and no rights imprisoned behind barbed wire? Was the pursuit of civil rights an act of disloyalty? It’s a classic question in the evolution of American law. It’s asked again and again. These men asked it in 1944. They were very young/ Was the choice between resisting or not resisting the draft, a choice between CONSCIENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION? The sole spokesman for the Nisei is...Insert: Young Mike Masaoka. Narrator: “The Japanese American Citizens League was formed to protest and demonstrate Japanese American ‘Americanism’ and ‘loyalty’. The JACL is led by Mike Masaoka of Salt Lake City.” Mike Masaoka; “Time and time and time again, were tried to tell them we were just as American as anyone...” Dr. Art Hansen, CA State Univ.; “he was somebody who had not been brought up around too many other Japanese Americans, and yet he was catapulted into this position of the head of the JACL.” James Omura; “The JACL was never dominant of or a major part in the lives of the Japanese Americans until the war. And the only reason it became important was because the government nominated them to be the sole spokesman.” Narrator: “The Nisei believe the JACL, as their designated leaders, stand for the test cases, and the defense of Nisei civil rights. Mike Masaoka’s JACL Bulletin #142: RE: TEST CASES of APRIL 6, 1942, tells the world where the JACL stands. “opposed to test cases” – Mike Masaoka (actor) “Nat’l Headquarters is unilaterally opposed to test cases to determine the constitutionality of the military regulations at this time. It is much easier to be a martyr than it is to be a quiet self-suffering good citizen.” Art Hansen; “JACL was adamantly opposed to test cases. It was sort of starting trouble at a time when what they needed was peace and calm and cooperation.” Mits Koshiyama; “To us the Constitutional issues were the most important thing. Unlike the JACL, where they said that public image and showing loyalty was the most important thing. We all felt that the Constitutional rights and Constitutional issues were the most important thing.” Milton Eisenhower: Meanwhile in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and elsewhere, quarters were being built. Narrator: “James Omura voluntarily relocates to Denver, CO hoping to start another magazine. He eventually becomes editor of the Rocky Shimpo newspaper. Mike Masaoka moves the offices and staff of the JACL to Salt Lake City.” Film/Home Movies – TRAINS LEAVING – TRAINS RUNNING. Narrator: “Through the summer and into the fall, Japanese Americans meet the reality of the concentration camps – by the trainload. Three hundred and fifty, four hundred, five hundred at a time. The barbed wire is real. The guard towers are real. Are they still real United States citizens? It is from a train that Frank Emi, first sees Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Wyoming.” Frank Emi; “My first impression when we got here was seeing rows and rows of tarpaper barracks, and it didn’t look a bit inviting. It doesn’t bring back fond memories at all.” Narrator: ‘Frank Emi is a judo man, and the father of two. He had been a student at Los Angeles City College, hoping to study pharmacy and close to paying off the mortgage on the family grocery.” Dissolve – The Emi Family Grocery – Frank; “ we tried to get rid of it, we only had about a month I guess to get rid of it, especially, when people got wind (of, uh, why that), we were going to be evacuated. The most we could get was fifteen hundred dollars for the whole thing, so we took a shellacking on that, just like everybody else, in the Japanese community did.” Narrator: “Gloria and Guntaro Kubota had a small farm in San Jose. Guntaro will become translator for the Nisei resistance. Narrator: “Gloria will become the typist. A son will be born in this camp. They will name him Gordon. Guntaro will share a cell in federal prison with Frank Emi. Frank Emi will draw his picture. CAMP AND THE MOUNTAIN – YOSH KUROMIYA SKETCHING THE MOUNTAIN. Yosh Kuromiya; “Usually it was wind, and either cold, or dust. When we got to Heart Mountain, none of us knew we were going to be prisoners of war, heroes or resisters or whatever.” Narrator: “Yosh Kuromiya of Los Angeles, is and architecture student.” Yosh; “I did several sketches of the mountain itself. I thought it was a thing of beauty, and that maybe it was the only sanity that I was experiencing at the time. There was something permanent about it and something all knowing. TO DRAFT NISEI from CAMP. Narrator: “As the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor approaches, The WRA asks each camp to elect and send two representatives to Salt Lake City for a one week ‘all camp conference’ to give the internees a voice in WRA policy making. (JACL HQ). ART HANSEN; “...And as it turned out these people who went weren’t popularly elected by the communities that they so-called represented. And almost all of them were JACL. None of them would have been elected if there had been any kind of representative democracy at work. And the bottom line from that whole thing that came out of it, which set in motion the trouble, is the idea of drafting the Nisei.” Newspaper Headlines (Pacific Coast): “JACL ASKS FOR RESTORATION OF DRAFT” (for the Nisei as a civil right). MIKE MASAOKA; “The only real test of loyalty as seen by most Americans, which you can’t refute, you know, was to shed on the battlefield blood to show that it’s the same with us of Japanese ancestry as it was with any other group. We felt this was the only way we could get our constitutional rights recognized at all.” MICHI WEGLYN; “The reaction in Manzanar and other camps was, what? They want to raid a concentration...you know, concentration camps for bodies, I mean to be shot at...? Series of Shots: RIOT SCENE; A MODEL OF THE MANZANAR RIOT WITH MODEL BUILDINGS ‘BRITAINS’ TOY SOLDIERS AND FIGURES PAINTED TO LOOK JAPANESE AS RIOTERS – A confrontation whereby military police who were called onto the camp ended up being trigger happy, shooting people. Two of whom died, nine others who were wounded. MIKE MASAOKA writes WRA Director Dillon Myer; “In view of the fact that practically every person who has been beaten up in the centers is a member of our Japanese American Citizens League, many of our members have written suggesting that our organization create special gangs for the protection of our own membership!” TRAITORS, ROTTEN APPLES, AND PATRIOTS... Narrator: “1943 begins with Secretary of War Henry Stimson calling for VOLUNTEERS FOR AN ALL-NISEI UNIT, THE FOUR HUNDRED FORTY SECOND REGIMENTAL COMBAT TEAM. He says volunteering gives the Nisei a chance to separate themselves into “traitors” “rotten apples” and “patriots.” The FIRST NISEI to volunteer for the all Japanese American 442nd is MIKE MASARU MASAOKA. MITS KOSHIYAMA; “A segregated Army unit? It doesn’t make sense to me. You want me to go and fight for democracy and a free world and here my parents are incarcerated in the concentration camp, and even I am incarcerated in this concentration camp. We’re denied the very rights I’m supposed to fight for, and I said that don’t make sense to me. GOV’T FILM; “CHALLENGE TO DEMOCRACY”. Narrator: “The WRA, smarting from criticism for the camp riots of last December, takes it upon itself to sort out the loyal from the disloyal with a questionnaire: ‘THE APPLICATION FOR LEAVE CLEARANCE’ questionnaire”. GOV’T Narrator: “Only those evacuees whose statements and whose acts leave no question of their loyalty to the United States are permitted to leave.” Narrator: “SMALL PRINT at the bottom of the form threatened ‘A $10,000 FINE or 20 YEARS HARD LABOR IN A FEDERAL PRISON, OR BOTH, FOR NOT ANSWERING ALL QUESTIONS TRUTHFULLY’ “. ROGER DANIELS at Heart Mtn. “The motives were not really bad, the WRA was a bureaucratic organization, they said, ‘Well, let’s find, we can let loyal Japanese Americans go out, so they hand out this god damn questionnaire’ “. Narrator: “The Application for Leave Clearance Registration form inspired Nisei suspicion and resistance, the instant it was first introduced, at Tule Lake Relocation Center in California. The entire block of 3,000 refused to have anything to do with it. FRANK EMI: “It seemed to be very simple, but if you looked carefully, at the top logo, it said, ‘Selective Service System’. And on the left-hand corner of that sheet it says, ‘Local board date stamp’. And all the questions were innocuous, except 27 and 28.” Matte card: 27. Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States...? Narrator: 27. Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States wherever ordered? Frank Emi; “And if you answered yes, it was an implication that you volunteered.” Matte Card: 28. Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America...and foreswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese Emperor? Narrator: “28. Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the U.S. from any and all attacks by foreign or domestic forces and foreswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese Emperor? Frank Emi; “And if a Nisei answered yes to that it seemed like you had at one time or another pledged allegiance to the Emperor of Japan, which was the case in most.” More comments followed. Ending with: FRANK EMI, “I printed up, hand printed my answers on sheets of paper with the help of my brother and put down suggested answers to questions 27 and 28, and we went around camp taking it up in public places around camp. Which was my first venture into activism at that time. MICHI WEGLYN; “And, of course, that was the genesis, the beginnings of the resisters.” PROTEST. Narrator: “Before the emergence of the organized resistance at Heart Mtn., this man, Frank Inouye, a UCLA graduate, says the JACL does not represent him. And he leads an organized protest. He founds the Heart Mountain Congress of American Citizens. The Congress OBJECTS TO VOLUNTEERING UNTIL THE CITIZENSHIP STATUS OF THE NISEI IS CLARIFIED, THEIR CIVIL RIGHTS ARE RESTORED, THE GOVERNMENT APOLOGISES FOR THE EXPULSION, AND THE PRESIDENT CLEARS THE NAME OF THE NISEI. He blames himself for the anger and resistance to the Loyalty oath questions erupting at other camps. He feels he has unleashed pent up and uncontrollable Nisei emotions. He is not willing to break the law. He has come closer to the line between protest and resistance than he wants. The Congress dissolves. ART HANSEN; “And they expected to get 3,000 volunteers out of the camps, and they ended up getting 800. THE LONE NISEI. BEN KUROKI, the only Nisei in the Army Air Corps, finally finds acceptance as an American and a sense of belonging in a B-24 named “The Red Ass”. “I was with the 93rd Bomb Group. And we were the first B-24 group to fight in England. And I was a top turret gunner when we flew the mission over the Ploesti oil refineries. And that one was my 24th mission.” OPERATION: Tidal Wave. TARGET: Ploesti, Rumania. Narrator: “One more mission and he could go home. Fifty planes and 500 men are lost. Kuroki and the other survivors will receive the Distinguished Flying Cross.” THE DRAFT COMES TO CAMP. Narrator: “August 1943: Japanese Americans finish their first year of internment. The 442nd and Mike Masaoka sail for Europe.” (Actually, training for the 442nd was completed in April, and on April 22, 1944, the unit left Camp Shelby in Mississippi on their journey to Europe for their first overseas assignment. They arrived in Italy in June 1944, where they began to fight alongside the 100th against Germans encamped across the country.) HEADLINE: PACIFIC CITIZEN: January 1944: “WAR DEPT. REOPENS DRAFTING OF NISEI”. KEI YOSHIDA; “Whenever this draft notice came, that was it, I wasn’t going. Not from a concentration camp!” Narrator: “In every camp but Gila, Arizona, and Manzanar, individual Nisei refuse to appear. FRANK EMI; “When we first heard about the draft being instituted in the camps, it was unbelievable. I wouldn’t believe that the government would actually strip us of everything, put us in camp and then order us into the military as if nothing happened. That’s when FAIR PLAY COMMITTEE took on this draft issue. Narrator: “April 1944: Fair Play Committee founder, Kiyosho Okamoto writes a private letter to Roger Baldwin, head of the American Civil Liberties Union, asking for their help. ROGER DANIELS at Heart Mtn. “the role of the ACLU in the early days of the relocation, incarceration, was really despicable, and now I’m talking about the national ACLU. Baldwin apparently consulted with leaders of the Japanese American Citizens league in Salt Lake City and answered Okamoto in a public letter which was made public before Okamoto received it denouncing what he was doing, saying that they had no right to do this, etcetera, something the American Civil Liberties Union today, would absolutely deny. ” HEADLINE: “CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION REJECTS REQUEST BY FAIR PLAY COMMITTEE”. (Continues with other individuals speaking about their resistance.) Narrator: “THE HEART MOUNTAIN RESISTER HAVE 2 THINGS NO OTHER CAMP HAS: Organization and Leaders.” FRANK EMI; “We had Mr. Okamoto and Paul Nakadate. Nakadate is a very good speaker, spoke at the meetings. Three or four hundred, I think, attended these meetings. And we held them almost every night. THE ENEMY ALIEN STRATEGY and “LET US NOT BE RASH”. Narrator: “Resisters at Amache Relocation Center, AZ and other camps point to their original 4-C draft classification and say the government has declared them ‘Enemy Aliens’. They believe by declaring themselves ‘enemy aliens’ they are calling the Government’s bluff and forcing them to review the facts. If the Nisei are enemy aliens, they challenge the government to send them back to Japan. If they are U.S. citizens, it’s up to the government to prove it by restoring their rights. They know this can be interpreted as a renunciation of their U.S. citizenship. It is.” SERIES of HEADLINES from JAN. and FEB. 1944: NISEI RESIST THE DRAFT. This, as a strategy for resisting the draft, alarms James Omura. He is moved to write an editorial against the Enemy Alien strategy for resisting the draft. Omura gives a veiled call for organizing a draft resistance on constitutional grounds. “Let Us Not Be Rash” was no ordinary editorial. Newspaper column Feb. 28th. “I couldn’t tell the people to organize, but in essence I was telling them to organize.” Narrator: “Omura will be arrested and after his arrest will never write again.” JAMES OMURA; “The Nisei are well within their rights to petition the government for redress of grievances. Beyond that they would be treading on unsure footing. Unorganized draft resistance is not the proper method to pursue our grievances.” RESISTANCE. Shown are panoramas of Heart Mtn. Camp / Yosh Kuromiya sketches. Frank Emi; “One for all and all for one. The Fair Play Committee believes that the first duty of every loyal citizen is to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States. The next 2 weeks, subscriptions to the Rocky Shimpo at Heart Mtn. rise from 1,000 to 1,200. Narrator: “Frank Emi tells the leaders of the Fair Play Committee, now was the time to make a real stand with action, not words. We had to resist and test the Constitution in court.” FRANK EMI; “Paul Nakadate didn’t want to go that far. I had to take him aside and tell him as forcefully as I could why we should do more than protest. We feel that the present program of drafting us from this concentration camp is unjust, unconstitutional, and against all principles of civilized usage. Therefore, we members of the Fair Play Committee hereby refuse to go to the physical examination or to the induction, if or when we are called on order to contest the issue. That’s the one line that got us indicted.” MICHI WEGLYN; “They would prefer to go to jail. And can you imagine, young fellows making such hard decisions. I cannot get over it.” YOSH KUROMIYA; I wasn’t so high-minded. I know my dad was 100% behind me but was concerned at one point and begged me to consider being like the rest of the guys and just go along and don’t make waves.” MITS KOSHIYAMA; “Not everyone in the family has to think the same you know. There’s always one in every family that’s a little different. And that happened to be me.” Narrator: “MARCH 1944. Twelve NISEI at Heart Mountain REFUSE TO BOARD THE BUS FOR THEIR DRAFT PHYSICALS.” FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. Headline: Rocky Shimpo: “WYOMING DRAFT RESISTANCE HAS AUTHORITIES STUMPED” Salt Lake Pacific Citizen: THE VOICE OF THE JACL: There is no doubt in our mind that the Fair Play Committee is composed of misguided Nisei. Salt Lake Pacific Citizen: STRENGTH THROUGH UNITY: The Rocky Shimpo appears to be deliberately engaged in, and attempt to undo, the positive services which Japanese Americans at war and producing for victory at home have contributed. Heart Mountain Sentinel: INTERNEE NEWSPAPER: Somebody must shoulder the responsibility for wrecking the lives of these boys. James Omura will be indicted as the number one menace to post-war assimilation of the Nisei. ROCKY SHIMPO EDITORIAL: “FREEDOM OF THE PRESS”. JAMES OMURA “Does freedom of the press exist in War Relocation Centers? It would not seem so, if our opinion were to be based on the editorial expressions of camp organs. Instead, it would indicate a controlled press.” Narrator: “The government seizes the Denver Rocky Shimpo. James Omura is replaced as editor. He will be arrested and tried as a co-conspirator in leading the Heart Mountain draft resistance. James Omura will be indicted as the number one menace to post-war assimilation of the Nisei. ART HANSEN; “Ben Kuroki was sent on a tour of duty as I construe it, to three different camps in the spring of 1944. And the first camp he was sent to was not an accident. It was Heart Mountain.” BEN KUROKI; “I was asked to speak, I guess, to this Fair Play Committee group. And I’d been warned that they were quite militant and that they were concerned for my safety, so they were going to put on some extra guards. I was quite shocked when I approached Heart Mtn. and came up to the gate and saw these armed guards and they were all wearing the same uniform I was wearing. It was really a shock. I never did get over that.” FRANK EMI; “We heard that Ben Kuroki was coming. He himself was a Nebraska boy, never knew anything about the camp, never was force out of his home. But I don’t think he had, really had, any business coming into these camps, trying to get as many people into the Army as possible to go into the military. So, none of us went. Some of the resisters might have gone to listen to him, but none of us leaders were there.” ART HANSEN; “I don’t think the JACL understood how deeply layered was the resistance to the resumption of the draft. I think they just thought it was some leaders and the Fair Play Committee and that was it. And it was more than that. The very day that Kuroki leaves, 6 more people refuse to report for their induction.” FUNDRAISING. Narrator: “Guntaro Kubota translates the Fair Play Committee bulletins into Japanese and actively raises money from the Issei. Hope of your cooperation for the benefit of the Japanese race.” GLORIA KUBOTA; “Some people brought all the cash they had, and they’d give it to him. It was really cute how some of these old people followed him around. You know, and that’s what they had to have was these Issei ladies to help raise the money for this trial. Most of the money for the two trials (one for the resisters and one for the leaders) comes from the Issei.” FRANK EMI; “We collected $2 apiece from the Fair Play Committee members to set up a fund in case we had to have legal action instituted. So, we had about close to 200 paying members at that time.” ARREST OF THE RESISTERS. Narrator: “May 10, 1944: The arrests begin. DAVE KAWAMOTO; “Oh, the morning I was picked up by the FBI, they came bright and early. They knocked on the door. And I said, ‘let me get a few clothes, underwear.’ They said, ‘No, no you won’t need that.’ So, he says, ‘come with me to the office.’ So, we went to the office, and they tried to change your mind. You know, they kept firing – asked questions about, how you’re going to embarrass your family. And how you’re going to get beat up in the Big House. And I say, ‘No, I’m standing by my convictions.” FRANK EMI; “One of the old Issei insurance man that used to sell insurance to the San Jose area, came to George’s mother’s place and said, ‘Well, your son’s going to be put away forever! You’re never going to see him again’!” THE BIGGEST MASS TRIAL IN WYOMING HISTORY. Narrator: “The trial of the 63 Heart Mtn. Nisei is the largest trial for draft resistance in U.S. history. The judge is T. Blake Kennedy. “IF THE PROSECUTION CAN’T IDENTIFY US, THEY CAN’T PROSECUTE”. Our attorney, Mr. Menin, suggested if the prosecution couldn’t identify us, they couldn’t prosecute. To thwart identification, perhaps cut off our hair, it would frustrate prosecution. MITS KOSHIYAMA; “So, we gave ourselves all short haircuts. Then when we were in court, I believe the federal marshals tried to call our names and make us recognize ourselves. YOSH KUROKIYA; “there was a handful of us that didn’t think it was a good idea. We really couldn’t see the point in avoiding identification or to obstruct the process in any way, because we were there to raise the issue, not to evade it. MITS; “When we didn’t stand up when our names were called, the federal marshal and the judge became very frustrated. And the judge became so angry, he told our lawyer Mr. Menin to make us stand up. So, Mr. Menin says, ‘Okay boys, stand up’.” Narrator: “The resisters decide to be tried without a jury. The trial lasts six days. JUNE 26, 1944: JUDGE KENNEDY HADS DOWN SENTENCES OF THREE YEARS EACH. JUDGE KENNEDY; “The dependents have made a serious mistake. When they were placed in 1-A and ordered to report for pre induction physical examination, their pure American citizenship was established beyond question.” THAT SAME DAY, THE 442ND ENGAGES THE ENEMY IN ITALY. ARMY – NAVY MAGAZINE: 100th INF. RECEIVES CITATION, Gen. Mark Clark; “All of you Americans of Japanese descent have every right to be proud. You have demonstrated true Americanism and true American citizenship on the field of battle. Shot: Heart Mtn.: Courtroom Photo. Narrator: “Heart Mtn: October 1944: A second group of 22 draft resisters is arrested. They receive the same sentence of three years. In all, 85 Nisei from Heart Mountain are sent to federal prisons at McNeil Island, Washington and Leavenworth, Kansas. ARREST OF THE SEVEN LEADERS. Narrator: “The 7 leaders of the Fair Play Committee and James Omura are indicted for conspiracy. Guntaro and Gloria Kubota name their son “Gordon”, after the resister, Gordon Hirabayashi. Guntaro waits to be picked up in camp. GLORIA KUBOTA; “They took him away about ten days after my son was born. I didn’t show any emotion because I believed in what my husband and those boys were doing.” Narrator: “Frank Emi poses for a portrait with his family. His bag is packed. In Denver they come for James Omura (“That’s right. I was in solitary for 16 days”). The TRIAL OF THE 7 LEADERS and JAMES OMURA. They hired Abraham Lincoln Wirin, a constitutional attorney from ACLU’s Los Angeles office, but as a private attorney. The ACLU wouldn’t help at all. Narrator: “The trial begins. The war hero Ben Kuroki is on the Government’s witness list. The Government accuses the 7 of organizing meetings and writing and distributing bulletins and advising Nisei to refuse to appear for their draft physicals. FRANK EMI; “They thought we were going to come out and just not deny anything. Just say exactly what we did. And that kind of took the prosecution by surprise.” Judge Eugene Rice instructs the jury, civil disobedience is not a defense. The jury convicts Kiyoshi Okamoto, Frank Emi, Min Tamesa, Paul Nakadate, Sam Horino, Ben Wakaye, and Guntaro Kubota for conspiracy. They acquit James Omura. Narrator: “Ben Kuroki never appeared in court. But he was big news in Wyoming. The leaders are sentenced to 2 to 4 years a Leavenworth. VICTORY. Narrator: “The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reverses the convictions of the seven leaders. It rules the jury should have been allowed to consider the defense of civil disobedience. Christmas Eve 1947: President Truman pardons all Nisei resisters from all the camps. PAUL TSUNEISHI: “The Nisei who resisted the injustices of the evacuation and internment have become pariahs in Japanese American society for fifty years. Some of us feel the social ostracism was unjustified, then and now, and must end. (Followed by a lot of discussion between the resisters). Narrator: “In the 1980s, Paul Tsuneishi, a veteran, and Dr. Clifford Uyeda, a former President of the JACL, participate in meetings between draft resisters and the Japanese American community that ostracized them. Forty years after James Omura was driven out of Nisei society, he faces and audience of Japanese Americans. “When I was acquitted, I felt I was vindicated. Vindicated as a person. Vindicated in my profession. I returned to Denver and then tried to obtain work. I was hounded from on job after another. It took me three months to finally find a job.” Etcetera. Narrator: “The JACL staff arranges for Frank Emi, a leader of the Fair Play Committee, and Mits Koshiyama, a resister, to speak at the JACL national convention in Salt Lake City. MITS KOSHIYAMA; “You might not like what I have to say, but it’s what I really believe. The JACL failed me when I needed them the most. Narrator: “The JACL staff hoped to accomplish a reconciliation. Instead, they were all fired. The incoming JACL president refused to meet the resisters. Japanese American candidates for political office cruising the convention for support, refused to meet the resisters. MIKE MASAOKA; “Some historians, writing from the isolation of their ivory towers, have contended the draft resisters were the real heroes of the Japanese-American story because they had the courage to stand up for a principle. These historians are wrong! The significance is in the relatively small number of dissidents in the face of gross injustice. The heroes are the men and their families who demonstrated their faith in America. WHO WRITES HISTORY? A lot of discussion among former internees. MICHI WEGLYN; “More and more stories are emerging, and in the same light several generations from now, these Heart Mountain resisters are going to become legendary figures.” Matte Card: The resisters have been accepted back into Japanese American society—to a degree. The Japanese American Citizens League remains the dominant voice of Japanese America.