Frank Yamasaki talked about his life. He was in high school when Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. The family business was lost when his family was interned at the Minidoka incarceration camp during World War II. Frank Yamasaki protested his loss of civil rights and resisted the military draft, arguing that he was unjustly incarcerated. He lost his case and was imprisoned. He talked about his prewar childhood, his family’s internment, and his struggle to force the government to acknowledge the injustice of interning Japanese Americans.
This is the first of two parts.
This interview from the Densho Visual History Collection was conducted August 18, 1997, at Mr. Yamasaki’s home in Lake Forest Park, Washington, by Lori Hoshino and Stephen Fugita for Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project.