Takashi “Tak” Hoshizaki was born in 1925 in Los Angeles to Japanese immigrant parents. During WWII, the Hoshizaki family was sent to the Pomona Assembly Center and then incarcerated at Heart Mountain, where Hoshizaki worked in the mess hall. In 1943, he answered “No” to Question 27 and “Yes” to Question 28 of the loyalty questionnaire. Believing the incarceration was unjust, he joined the Fair Play Committee and refused the draft.
The morning he was arrested, March 26, 1944, his mother handed him a sweater, a notebook, and a pencil. While he was in jail awaiting trial, Hoshizaki wrote in the notebook every day, recording his thoughts and what was happening around him.
At age 19, Takashi was convicted in a trial of 63 draft resisters and sentenced to three years in the McNeil Island federal penitentiary—often compared to Alcatraz for its remote location. He remembers learning a lot from the other inmates, many of whom were conscientious objectors to the war.
At age 19, Takashi was convicted in a trial of 63 draft resisters and sentenced to three years in the McNeil Island federal penitentiary—often compared to Alcatraz for its remote location. He remembers learning a lot from the other inmates, many of whom were conscientious objectors to the war.
After his release in 1946, he rejoined his family in Los Angeles, returned to school, and was later drafted again. This time he served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during the Korean War. Afterward, he earned his doctorate from UCLA and became a research scientist, retiring from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1989. Now 100 years old, Takashi continues to speak out for civil rights and historical remembrance.
