Deciding whether to answer

A teenager's memories of how a local newspaper misrepresented Japanese Americans Reaction of Japanese American community toward draft resistance stance The role of the media in influencing people's opinions Living conditions in prison while serving time for resisting the draft Talking to children about decision to resist the draft during World War II Deciding whether to answer "yes-yes" on the loyalty questionnaire in order to leave camp Reflecting on Japanese Americans' response to incarceration Speak out for your beliefs

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That portion they were stressing your loyalty, not whether you could leave the camp. And if they... I hadn't even given it a second thought about if I answered “yes-yes” I could leave camp. It was just my personal feeling, if they want to know my personal feeling, well they'll get it. So analyzing the questions as they did, I just went ahead and thought what I thought best, whether it's against the camp rules or whatever. So no, no, I never even gave it a thought of using that to get away from camp. To me, I thought that was a regular loyalty question and I should answer loyally. My heart, my feelings.

Date: July 25, 1997
Location: Washington, US
Interviewer: Larry Hashima, Stephen Fugita
Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

draft resisters World War II