Work Ethics

Honor

Honesty

Friendship

He was very much the "outsider, hence the term, "I never was respectable", which referred to his immigrant and outsider status (he was a "member of the tribe", e.g. Jewish), his romantic behavior (D'Israeli married a woman 20 years his senior for her money so he could become "respectable" but later fell in love with her), and his writing which like mine was "scandalous (in 19th century terms) and (somewhat, in my case) autobiographical."

A born writer, he had the unique ability to coin vivid phrases. Unlike most politicans, his speeches are still readable. His daily letters to Queen Victoria (who complained that his opponent, Gladstone treated her like a public meeting) were entertaining and full of humor. D'Israeli, in a lesson to modern day politicans disliked a centralized bureacracy.

One of his more important accomplishments was the Congress of Berlin where in 1878, he managed to stop Russia in its tracks by moving the British fleet to the Mediterranean, placing troops on Malta, occupying Cyprus, and purchasing a major interest in the Suez Canal to safeguard the route to the British colonies (such as India) in the East. The result was the growing distrust between Germany (Bismark held him in high regard) and Russia which may have saved Europe from either during the next 50 years although I wonder if this is what lead to World War I and II.

One of these questions, number 33 asked respondents if they were willing to renounce their alleged allegiance to Japan. This was in spite of the fact that a majority of those in the camps were U.S. Citizens. The other question (number 34) asked if the respondent was willing to be drafted.

Those who answered "Hell, no, we won't go" (until our families are free) which sounds familiar to me in that I still have my 1970's draft card and were insulted to be asked to give up an allegiance to a foreign power (which they never had in the first place) were labeled "no-no-boys" for answering no to both of these specific questions. And relocated to the Mindokata, Idaho camp.

To me, these folks were the real heroes of the war. Like the 442nd (the Army group of Japanese-Americans who volunteered to fight and won more medals (and probably died more often than any other unit), they also stood up to evil (but in a different way).

It is interesting to note that no one would have labeled my cousin a "no-no-boy" if the German government had asked him at the concentration camp he was in if he was willing to "renounce his allegiance to the proposed State of Israel or if he was willing to be drafted." Ditto for the Confederate government doing the same for the slaves in 1863. I guess it depends on whether or not you are the winning party in a war.

For more information, see the following:

• book review of John Okoda's No-No-Boy;
• George Takai's (Mr. Sulu on the "old" Star Trek) autobiography, " To The Stars."
  He who has been one of the few Americans of Japanese descent to openly talk about both his parents being "No-No-Boys (and Girls);
• Yokoh ama, California, Toshio Mori's pre-camp stories;
• Nisei Daughter, Monica Stone's autobiography, where as a young woman she recovers from tuberculosis only to be sent to a camp; and
• Citizen 13660, Mine Okubo's reflections (and sketches) from the Tanforan Assembly Center.